Requiem of a Dear Brother
by AluminaHeaven
Summary: Slowly, sadly, but surely, Edward Elric's mind had started to shatter, like a million glass shards falling off of a broken mirror, hitting the ground with deafening sounds, with absolutely no purpose of being put back together again...
1. The Eccentric City

ZOMG! Another Story!

But seriously. This is probably my favoritest story that I have ever put on this site! Why? 'Cause it's freaking cool! It's the main reason why I haven't been updating any of my other stories, so it better be good! Took me like forever to write the damned thing and then to type it and do a bunch of other stuff... Ugh..

But anyways, enjoy!

(And look at my profile for the love of God!) I'm sorry God *says while holding her cross* Kids, don't use the Lord's name in vain.

_**~ I wish you all sun, sea and books. ~ NISISION**_

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_**Chapter 1: The Eccentric City**_

"Brother, are you sure that you don't want to stop?"

"I'm fine, Al. Stop worrying about me."

"But you look like you're about to pass out."

Ed stopped in his footsteps. Even though his hood was over his head keeping the beating, hot sun off his head, the interior of his hood was completely black, actually absorbing more sunlight than he'd preferred.

He took a deep sigh as he slowly took his hood off. He looked up into the blinding sun, and then quickly looked down at the sand beneath his feet because of the intense light.

The Elric brothers were currently in the middle of a desert wasteland searching for a city called Station Village. It had a big rumour above its head for being a very eccentric town. But it also has another rumour, more of a military rumour at best, that this was one of the 1st cities that helped with research on the Philosopher's Stone.

Ed unknowingly dropped down on his knees onto the light colored, grainy, and loose sand. If he took another step, he was for without a doubt, going to pass out.

"You're tired, aren't you?" Alphonse said with a bit of smugness in his voice.

The older brother didn't answer. Instead, he let out a slightly dark laugh.

"Brother, are you okay?" Alphonse asked, sounding a little bit concerned.

"You could always read me like a book, couldn't you?" Ed answered, still laughing slightly.

Alphonse made a deep sigh. "The heat's getting to you, isn't it?"

Ed didn't answer but continued to stare at the loose grains of sand while quietly laughing to himself. Al took another deep breath.

'_This is exactly why people don't normally walk through the desert. They go crazy from lack of water! I just hope that we're closer to this place than we thought.'_

It was then when Al was suddenly interrupted in his thoughts by his 'crazy' older brother.

"Hey! If the sun is out, then why is the ground so wet?!" Ed shouted while looking at the sand with a crazed look. He started digging into the lightly colored sand and had started to reveal darker parts of wet sand.

Al took yet another impatient sigh. "It's the water in the ground. Probably when it rains over this desert, the water seeps into the ground. Surely you're not that delirious to . . . "

Al stopped in his sentence because he realized something. _'Water . . . in the ground . . .'_

Al made an audible gasp. He ran up to his older brother, who was still digging into the ground, revealing even darker spots of sand. _' Wow, this desert has more water than I thought . . . '_

Al kneeled down beside his brother, who was still digging in the ground as if he didn't notice the action Al just did. "Brother, you stay here, okay?"

Ed didn't answer. Instead, he kept digging into the damp sand. At this rate, he'd be at 3 feet below ground level in no time. He looked like a dog digging a hole and trying to bury a precious bone in a place so deep enough that no other dog could find it. And his quiet laughs sounded like pants of a dog.

Al ran about 20 feet away from his crazed brother and then once there, turned around to face said brother, who was almost 3 feet into the ground. Al watched for a couple of seconds in amazement how fast the hole his brother was digging kept getting larger. He shook his head as to rid himself of the image, and focused on the task at hand. He was going to transmute all the water from below the sand upward, to try and create an oasis of water.

'_I sure hope this works . . . '_

Al hesitantly clapped his hands together, and placed them slowly onto the area of sand in front of him. Almost immediately, a blue line, looking almost like lightning, went below the sand. Nothing happened for the next 10 seconds. Al seemed very confused, and started to wonder if he had done something wrong. Then, just as he was thinking that, the blue lightning line came back up through the sand and formed a slightly deformed circle in the sand. The blue lightning went away, and then water had started to seep through the sand slowly. Al started to slowly remove his hands from the sand. As soon as he did that, more water had started coming up through the sand at a rate that was incredible. Then the sand made a loud popping noise, and the water had started to squirt up through the sand like a large fountain. This action was so quick and sudden that it made Al fall back into the sand. The water continued to spurt up for another 45 seconds, while all the while, Al was staring in amazement at the alchemy he had just performed.

As soon as the pressure of the water had started dying down, Al took this chance to see if his intentions had been fulfilled. And they were, to an extent. The area of the oasis was about 10 feet in diametre, almost resembling a small swimming hole. The water was a translucent blue and not muddy in the least, although Al had figured that all the muddy water sunk to the bottom of the oasis, so he was pretty sure that it was safe enough to drink. The only 'cons' were that the sun was beating down onto the water, making it almost as bright as the sun, and he wasn't really sure if the water was cool or not. Once the water pressure was finally gone, Al looked to see what his brother was doing. Ed was still digging a hole about half the size of the oasis Al made, and probably almost as deep as it as well. Al couldn't see his brother, but had seen and heard large amounts of dirt being thrown out of the hole and loud thuds being made. There was a pile of dirt almost as tall as Al being made about 2 feet from the hole. Al quickly ran back toward his brother's hole. He looked down into the hole and saw Ed, completely covered from head to toe in dirt, still frantically digging. What he was digging for was the question . . .

"Brother, stop digging. I have some water for you!" Al yelled down into the hole.

But to be proven to have no avail, Ed kept digging frantically. This was proven as more larger amounts of dirt starting to move at a rate that was almost impossible to count. It seemed almost cartoony in a way.

"Brother, stop digging!" Al yelled louder into the hole.

"I'm almost there," Ed muttered. Al took it as an incoherent sound.

Just as Al took another breath to yell even louder into the hole, he had heard the same popping sound that was made when he made the oasis coming from Ed's hole. Al moved closer toward the hole and hesitantly looked down into the hole. What he had seen was a sight. As soon as he looked down, he saw his older brother looking up at him, with what one could call a crazed smile across his face, and with eyes with should well belong to that of a killer's. Al seemed a little shocked, but stayed exactly where he was. Until the sand beneath started rumbling. The ground shook violently and Al felt on his back. The rumbling continued for another 15 seconds and then stopped immediately. Al, still a little shooken up, slowly started to sit himself up. He looked at the hole again and saw Ed climbing out of the hole. How he did with all the rumbling going on is a mystery.

"Brother, are you okay?" Al asked, starting to settle onto his feet.

Ed didn't answer, but continued looking at Al with a very confused look. The confused look slowly but surely started to turn into the one that Al had seen while looking into the hole, but this time with sunlight making it more profound. Or scarier.

Al backed away a couple of steps as he saw Ed walking toward him in a zombie like way, with his head lowered and his back in a strange curve. His footsteps were rather unbalanced as well. Once Ed was within 5 feet between him and Al, he stopped in his tracks.

Al looked at Ed with a very confused look, as if he were almost scared of him. But, he kept convincing himself that it was the heat that was making Ed act weird. He came out of his thoughts when he had suddenly heard a loud clap noise.

"You really didn't have to make the oasis," Ed had started saying very slowly. He brought his hands down onto the sand very gently, as if he were trying very hard not to move any of the sand grains his hands were on top of. Just as he did that action, Al watched in surprise as he saw a massive amount of water suddenly spurted out of the deep hole that Ed was previously in. This massive amount of water kept spurting out for about another 30 seconds. Once it had finished, Al looked down at his brother, who had just started to lift his hands away from the dry desert floor. Ed slowly started to stand back up to his normal stance. He looked up at Al, and flashed a smile as bright as the hot desert sun, and continued saying, "'cause I had one from the very beginning!"

And with that, Ed went happily ran straight to the hole filled with water he'd just made, and started to drink out of it. Al remained standing where he was, very dazed and confused, about what had just happened . . .

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"What kind of lesson was that?" Al asked, now sounding very angry.

"To see what you would do if something like that would happen," Ed answered simply as they started to walk through a dry desert. Ed now had a giant canteen filled with water that he was currently drinking from.

"But you scared me! I thought that you were going crazy from the heat." Al said in the same tone.

"Do I look like I've gone crazy?" Ed asked, looking at Al with a flashy smile.

"For some reason, I can't find myself saying no," Al muttered to himself.

Ed's smile started to disappear. "It was just a test to see what you would do. It wasn't like a cruel joke or something."

Al looked into the direction of the sun, ignoring Ed.

Ed made a deep sigh. "Fine. I won't do it again."

Al continued looking toward the bright sun.

Ed looked at him for a couple of seconds, and then made a 'hmph' sound and crossed his arms in frustration. "Be that way."

All was silence for the next two hours, until Ed broke the silence with an observation.

"Hey, Al. Why aren't you sinking?"

"I don't know. Maybe the sand's denser here." Al answered immediately.

"Hunh," Ed said nodding his head slightly. "That makes sense."

There was a moment of silence for another 15 minutes until it was Al's turn to break the ice, metaphorically speaking.

"We're here."

"Oh. That was quick."

The Elric brothers looked up at a 20 foot tall rusted sign above them, saying in dull blue letters; _'Station Village: Ex nihilo nihil fit'._

"What do you think _'ex nihilo nihil fit' _means?" Al asked, slightly confused.

"Dunno. I don't speak Latin," Ed answered simply while taking a deep breath.

"But in some of the alchemy books we've read, there was some Latin in it," Al said while looking at the sign more intensely.

"But all that had to do with alchemy. I have no idea what this says."

"Don't you think that if this was a town that was associated with the Philosopher's Stone, then wouldn't the saying have something to do with alchemy?"

"That does make sense . . . but, let's just ask someone when we go inside."

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Station Village had definitely lived up to its rumour of being a very eccentric town. Though all of the building structures were made that almost identical toward city like structures, the people themselves were very eccentric. All the signs on the businesses were put backwards so the only way you could read them was with a mirror. The town itself was in the middle of the desert, so they probably didn't get many tourists. So when they actually had tourists, you could imagine that they would act more eccentrically more than 'normally', in their case. And each day was a special holiday, from all age groups, measuring from the day after their birth, to all the way toward their death. It may be a very eccentric town, but it treats its people very well.

"It says here that they have a holiday, every single day of the year," Al said while looking at the tourist guide. Both he and Ed were seated at a restaurant, waiting to order their food. Well, more like Ed's food.

"Oh yeah? What holiday is it today?" Ed asked, sounding very nonchalant.

"Apparently, it appears to be 'wear your clothes backwards' day," Al answered while flipping the page.

"What kind of a holiday is that? It sounds really boring," Ed said while looking around the area of the restaurant. He saw a group of kids about 20 feet away playing a game that involved a soccer ball, a baseball, a croquet mallet, a piece of paper and a snorkel. He quickly turned his attention back toward the table he was sitting at. He didn't want to know what kind of sport they were about to play.

"This place is actually very interesting. If it weren't so far away, it would probably be a good vacation spot. Even though they're in a desert, they still have all the requirements to live as if they weren't a remote town." Al said while being completely emerged in the book.

'Why would this place even need a tourist guide if there are rarely any tourists here? Wait a second . . . where'd you get that from?" Ed asked, sounding more curious.

"A little girl gave it to me while we were walking inside," Al answered, not looking up from the book.

"So, what you're saying is that a random little girl came up to you and gave you a book with all the information about this town?"

"Oh, you must be talking about Yeshska." A person answered walking up to them. "Silly little thing can always tell when tourists come to visit. Even when others can't. Not that you two are a sight for sore eyes." The person that had answered was female, with lightly tan skin and sun kissed wavy dark blonde hair that went down to her waist, with dark blue crystal eyes. She had on a backwards light blue shirt and a black skirt on. "Sorry, for interrupting your conversation. I just heard it from across the room. My name's Azulene." She said with a big smile on her face.

"It's nice to meet you, Azulene," Al said finally looking away from the tourist guide. "Your town is very interesting."

Azulene made a light hearted laugh. "Actually, I think the word you're looking for is 'eccentric'. That's what everyone who visits here says. But, trust me, the longer you stay here, the more you'll agree with me. Now, what would you like to order?" She said as she took out a notepad and a blue pen from the back of her head, near her neck.

"Before we do that, can I ask you a question?" Ed asked while looking at the menu. He put it down on the table in slight frustration that he couldn't read it without a mirror. "Actually, I have a few questions."

"Sure, that's fine with me." Azulene answered while putting the notepad and pen back in her hair.

"That sign at the entrance," Ed started while pointing towards the front of the town, "The Latin part. What does it mean?"

Azulene looked at him with a confused expression, but then her face finally lit up. "You mean_ 'ex nihilo nihil fit'_? Well, that means, '_from nothing, nothing is produced'_. That saying is in most of the beginner alchemy books made. Especially in the chapter where they introduce the _'Equivalent Exchange' _rule. Or it could be the_ 'Law of Conservation of Mass'_ chapter? Well, I've only dabbled a little in some of the books, but that was only for school. But I'm not really sure."

"Wait. You have to learn alchemy here?" Al asked sounding very interested.

"How do you think we get all our main resources from? We get most of our water from the bottom of the desert floor, but we always put it through a filter just to be sure. We grow our own food by mixing some of the water we use with some of the sand. So, it's pretty good here."

"Sounds pretty resourceful."

Azulene nodded her head slightly. "It is. Which is why every single person here has to take at least four years of alchemy training so that they can help out in the town. I'm on my 6th year. The art interests me in many ways. The way you can take something that has one use and transform it so it has another completely different use."

"So basically, you're like a monolithic town," Ed said while trying to read the menu.

Azulene moved her head slightly to the right. "I guess you can say that."

"Well, that does kind of make sense," Ed mumbled mostly to himself. "Alright, second question. Why are all the signs in town put backwards so that you need a mirror to read it?"

"Actually, it's just another way to read English. And it was the way we were taught to read and how all the books are printed here. Only outsiders like you would probably need a mirror to read it the way you learned it. Oh, I almost forgot."

Azulene walked away from the Elric brothers for a couple of seconds and then appeared with two small mirrors in her hand. "Just don't point them directly into the sunlight. They're like magnifying glasses. They'll reflect of the light and direct it toward something and probably burn whatever you directed it at." She said as she set the mirrors down on the table where they were sitting at. "Any more questions?"

"One more. Why are you guys in the desert? Why so far away from other towns, not to mention civilization?"

Azulene took a deep breath and thought for a couple of seconds, as if she didn't know how to answer the question.

After a couple of more seconds, she finally answered saying," Well, imagine a teenager just wanting to get away from their parents because they're sick and tired of them, so they just ran away from home. This town is the teenager. And the rest of the world's our parents and home." She finished the last sentence in a sad tone. She lowered her head, as if to conceal the fact that she was crying.

Ed looked at Azulene with concerned eyes. "Was that too personal of a question?"

Azulene looked up, and suddenly her expression changed to a more cheerful expression, though a little sadness still appeared across her features.

"No, it's fine. Are you guys ready to order now?" She answered while pulling out the notepad and pen again.

Once Ed ordered his food, and Al said that he wasn't very hungry at the moment, Azulene had walked away saying that their order would ready in just 10 minutes.

"It's such a sad story. Being separated from civilization because you're different." Al said while looking at the tourist guide again.

"She reminds me of someone . . . " Ed mumbled while looking at the ground.

"You mean Rose? Yeah, she does seem to have some similar personality traits to her. But she also seems to express her feelings just like Rose as well."

"Do you think this town is like Liore?" Ed asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, not at all. It's just that there are a lot of similarities between the two. This town's definitely better, alchemy wise. Everyone does their part, instead having somewhat of a dictator taking them over. Besides, there isn't a religious broadcast in sight. "

Ed made a small laugh. "That's true. They seem like a pretty sturdy town. No one to lean on. Only depending on themselves and the business they do."

"Wait! Brother, look at this." Al said while handing him the guide book.

Ed took the book and started to read. It was talking about the town's history. The passage had read: _**In 1790, Sir Arturo of the country formally known as Grecia (now called Adela), immigrated to a place near Amesteris, only to be lost somewhere about 50 miles from the country with 36 other people. With no way or idea of finding the country, they had decided to create their own town, like what the Americans did with Jamestown. But they had absolutely no supplies like the Americans had. Luckily 15 out of the 37 people had been acquainted with the art known as alchemy, which is the act of transforming matter so that it could be used as something else. The alchemists were said to have used the gravel and concrete around them to make large stone buildings. They used the wheat around them to produce bread. Once all the buildings and businesses were set up to its maximum capacity, the settlement was called Station Village because of how all the buildings were put right in the middle of the road, and how people came and went like what one would do inside of a train or bus station. By 1804, the settlement came to have 290 people and had one of the most incomes for selling it's freshly baked bread using the alchemy to help cook it.**_

_**All was well and good, until the year of 1824. State Alchemists barged into the quaint little town and demanded that the town would become part of Central, although Central itself was more than 70 miles away. The mayor, and great grand son of Sir Arturo, David, refused and demanded that the State Military get out of his town. The State Alchemists merely laughed in his face. But they went away nonetheless. But one day on the 13th of April in 1825, the leader of the State Military, whose name will not be mentioned, approached the mayor and gave him information about a precious stone.**_

'_It must have been the Philosopher's Stone!' _Ed thought furiously.

_**Later on the 25th,two State Alchemists went to the mayor and started working with him and research with the town's scientist and alchemists about this precious stone. No one knows what the name of this precious stone, but only that it was more powerful than anybody could imagine.**_

_**On the 18th of May in 1826 Mayor David and the two alchemists, who had become well acquainted with the people of Station Village, despite their title, revealed something magical. The mayor held up a tube filled with red liquid, and poured out the contents onto the podium that was in front of him. The contents turned into a ball even though it was liquefied. The Mayor said to the townspeople that this was something that was called the Philosopher's Stone. He described as ' a substance that could give you the equivalent of having Godlike powers'. He gave a demonstration of the Philosopher's Stone, by having a piece of wheat, a turned it into an entire loaf of bread. He then took a glass of water, and turned it into wine. He took a tiny pebble and turned it into a bar of gold. He did many more demonstrations that day, and people were amazed at all the power that was in the little stone.**_

_**Some people called it a miracle.**_

_**Others called it an impossible sight made possible.**_

_**But most importantly, most people called it breaking the laws of' 'Equivalent Exchange and Conservation of Mass'.**_

_**Nonetheless, the people of Station Village were surprised at the magic bestowed on their little town. Some people wanted some of this power for their own. Others wanted to keep their distance from the power of God. Very few hated the fact that this power were put on their town. They were the kind of people would rather work for the same actual result that stone have produced. Yet they wanted to find out more about it.**_

_**Almost two weeks after the power of the Philosopher's stone to the townspeople, there was a riot at the mayor's home. Someone had shot the mayor and fled off with the precious stone of power. Most people thought that it was one of the State Alchemists, but when the townspeople barged into their homes, they had seen them shot both in the head, dead.**_

_**Once the riot was calmed down, everyone went to the hospital to see the injured mayor. Sadly, when they arrived at the Hospital, the mayor was already pronounced dead as well. The townspeople felt lost. They didn't have a leader, and the two people who helped keep them safe, were now both dead. And no one in the group really knew how to guide a group who had just lost their leader. It was then at that particular moment, that they had decided to not become any part of the countries around, never to be involved with any other government, except themselves. They wanted to be as far from the world as possible. They wanted to move away from this bloodshed town. After complex and deep contemplation of where to live, they had finally decided on a place to live: the desert. They knew that the desert wasn't the best place to move a town, but no one in the townspeople disagreed. They didn't want something like this happening in their town ever again. They had prepared and created items using alchemy that they needed for their long trip.**_

_**3 months after making this decision, Station Village, now consisting of over 900 people, packed up everything they could and settled out towards the Andira Desert, over 40 miles away, on October 12th, 1826.**_

Ed put the book down, his face covered in shock. "The Philosopher's Stone... it was in the same condition as Dr. Marcoh's . . ."

"And someone came and took it from this town." Al said, looking out at the crowds of people walking past the restaurant.

"But, what I can't understand is why would someone want to take an incomplete stone . . ."

" Maybe they had a reason for taking it." Al said, reassuring.

"What kind of a reason would someone have that would involve killing three people? Even if they were in the same situation as us, there are many other ways to get a stone, before you even get to the point of killing people."

"They could have been in a situation that's even worse than ours, and the only way out was to get the Philosopher's Stone."

Ed slammed his hands hard onto the table, making it jiggle a little. "Remember this; there is no, and I mean absolutely no situation horrible enough to kill people over, just to get what you want. There's always an alternate way, even if it's harder. You can never kill people just to get what you want." Even though he spoke in hushed tones, it was as if the entire town stopped what they were doing, and listened to what Ed had said.

"You're right, you know," Azulene said as she set Ed's order down in front of him. She stared at the tourist guide in front of him. "You read the history, didn't you?" she asked, looking at both Ed and Al with a sincere look.

They both had looked at her and nodded their heads slowly.

Azulene smiled at them. Tears started to run out of her dark crystal blue eyes and run down her cheeks as she continued, saying,"It's a terrible thing, killing. I wished that it never was created. How a human being can take the life of another human, and not feel any remorse at all, is beyond me. I cry even when I see an tiny little ant get squished. But, it's all a part of life. Everyone dies somehow, in some way. I just wished that killer didn't take the precious stone, even, if it was breaking the two basic laws of alchemy. I wanted to see if human beings could cross into God's territory, and make actual human beings come back to life or live longer than we were destined to live for." Azulene caressed her stomach in a caring way, as if something was inside of her."C-could you guys stay for another 20 minutes? My shift ends then. I want to show you something."

Both Elric brothers looked at each other at the same time. Then they both looked at Azulene with sincere looks on both of their faces. They nodded their heads slightly.

"Thank you."She said, wiping the tears away. "Enjoy your food."

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Does anybody EVER review my stories? I mean, come on guys. Every story that I read, I absoulety try to leave a review in every single one. Think about how hard the people work to try and update chapters for you guys who read them, and they have have like 3 or 4 reviews after they finished the story. The most awesomest stories I read have like 12 reviews at the end of them, when they should have like 500. So, please try and review every story you read, even if it's like 'good job' or 'keep up the good work'. Every review is the best in the author's heart. (Well, at last in mine...)


	2. The Strange Pasts of the 3 Humans

Hi... Um.. Well... I forgot to add the full story summary because... the one one the link to the story...SUCKS! Here it is!

**_Story's Actual Full Summary: Ed and Al go to an eccentric town in the middle of the desert in search for the Philosopher's Stone. Here they meet a girl who claims to know their entire past and the reason why they are looking for the stone by just reading their minds. After they start to leave the town, a terrible accident happens that leaves one of the brother's dead. Unable to cope with the loss of a loved one, the brother's mind is shattered, never showing showing signs of recovering from the extreme loss._**

Sound better? Well, I think so. Anyways... Here's the 2nd chapter!

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_**Chapter 2: The Strange and Horrible Pasts of the 3 Humans**_

The town had all went back to 'normal' as soon as Azulene had left the Elric's presence.

"What do you think she wants to show us?"

"Dunno. But she seemed pretty desperate to take us somewhere." Ed said while he ate his food.

"But she just met us. Why does she feel so safe around us? For all we know, she could be trying to kill us." Al said, while going back to reading about the town in the tourist guide.

"Didn't you hear her? She starts to cry if even she sees an ant get killed. Do you even know how she would react she even killed a person? She'd probably go insane! Besides, no one delivers such a heart felt speech like that without being serious." Ed said while looking out into the crowd.

"Still, we shouldn't let our guard down." Al said while flipping a page.

"We'd be idiots if we did that." Ed answered while taking a sip of his drink.

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After 20 minutes had past, Azulene arrived at their table again.

"You guys ready to go?" Azulene said while picking up the dishes on the table.

"Yeah, we're just about ready to go." Ed said while starting to stand up from his seat.

Azulene made a small chuckle. "Let me just get these dishes cleaned up, and then we can go." She walked away, towards the kitchen.

Al stood up, and a bunch of people also inside the restaurant were staring at him in amazement at how tall he was. Then they directed their attention to Ed, who was significantly shorter than Al, and a few snickers were made. Luckily, they weren't making any comments, or at least if they were, they weren't loud enough for Ed to hear. Once Azulene had come out of the kitchen five minutes, she was still holding her stomach very gently and looking at it thoughtfully. When she approached the two brothers, she looked at them thoughtfully as well.

"The walk's going to be about 20 minutes long, and it's going be off all major roads, so no one can hear us. Come, follow me," she said as she started walking towards the exit of the restaurant. Both Ed and Al followed her without any disruptions or objections.

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After five minutes of walking on the dirt road, more and more people had started to disappear. Most of the people they walked past had said hello to Azulene, but she didn't answer. She just kept looking at her stomach, and cradling it gently.

Once another two minutes had past, Azulene had said suddenly, "One of you two are a State Alchemist right?"

Ed and Al immediately stopped in their footsteps Azulene stooped in her steps as well. They were approximately 5 feet away from each other. Azulene turned around to face them. She never let her hands go off of her stomach.

"How did you know?" Al asked, his voice shaking a little.

Azulene made a small laugh. "From that expression, it would have made me believe that it was you. But, it's not, is it?" Just as she was saying the last sentence, her eyes rested directly on Ed. "It's you."

"Well, I am pretty famous." Ed said, rubbing the back of his head while flashing a goofy smile.

Azulene nodded her head. "You are. I mean, being the youngest State Alchemist at age 12? How can one not be famous for such a title at that young an age? What did they call you?" she thought for a few seconds. "Right. The Fullmetal Alchemist."

"Can't believe that in faraway places like this, we're well known. Right, Al?" Ed said while looking up at Al with a flashy smile. Al just simply nodded his head in agreement.

"Oh, course. How could one forget the Fullmetal Alchemist's brother, Alphonse Elric? Being always being mistaken for the Fullmetal Alchemist, can make a person pretty famous." Azulene mumbled while staring at her stomach.

Ed's smile started to fade. Once it was gone, he asked the question, "How do you know that?"

Azulene didn't answer at first. She kept staring at her stomach while a big smile started to appear her face. "Well, this might sound a little crazy, but I think that I can go into people's minds, and see their entire lifetime up to the present, which is right now. And let me just tell you, you've had quite the past. Probably one of the most, if not the most, gruesome pasts I've ever seen." More tears had started fall down her cheeks while her smile instantly became a thing of the past. "I don't know if I could live with myself if I went though even a small portion of your past, Edward." She looked up at him as more tears flowed from her dark crystal eyes. She spoke more, saying, "Losing your mother, having your father walk out on you, burning your house down. And that silver pocket watch you have. You even put the date on which you burned your house down, to keep you remembering why you left home to search for the Philosopher's Stone, as you would call it."

Al made a huge gasp, filling the silence, while Ed stared at Azulene in horror. Those were all parts of his past that he hasn't told anyone, yet she knew all of them, as if she studied them for a test. He just couldn't believe it.

"How could you possibly know all that?" Ed said to Azulene in a harsh whisper.

"I told you, Edward. I now know everything about your's and Alphonse's pasts. I even know why you're searching for the precious stone. But I won't say it aloud, for your sake. This . . . ability is not something that I preferred to have. It's not like I can just stop doing it. It comes naturally. But I've been trying really hard to try and block out other people. Once I've read them, it's pretty easy to block out, especially if I see the person every day. But when newcomers like yourselves arrive . . . well, it's like all the work I've been doing gets flushed down the drain." Azulene tried to say in the most apologetic way as she possibly could.

Ed didn't say anything. All he did was stare at her in horror. He felt his heart beating through his chest. It felt like it was going to explode out of his chest if he didn't slow it down somehow. He tried to think about calm things. He started to think about his mother. While he was doing that, he unknowingly fell onto the dirt road in shock.

"Why are you telling us this? Things we already know? Bringing back bad memories for us?" Al asked, his voice laced with anger.

"It's because . . . " Azulene said while walking towards Ed, whose heart was beating faster than before. He clenched his heart in pain. His eyes were bulging slightly out of his head. It was like he was having a mild heart attack. "It's because, I can help you find the precious stone. But, first, I must help your brother. I can feel his life draining away by the second."

"W-what's wrong with him?" Al said, sounding very concerned.

Azulene felt the top of his head to try and see his brain activity. It was very rapid. About five flashes of his memory were going by per half-second. She took a deep gasp. If he didn't get water soon to cool down, his brain was going to overheat.

"He needs water now!" she yelled as she put her hands flat on the ground.

As soon as she put her hands down again the warm dirt road, water came splashing up from behind her. She looked behind her and stared in horror.

"I need more water. There's not enough here!"

Al quickly grabbed the canteen wrapped around Ed's body and tried to take it off as carefully as he could, but also quickly as he could. Once he got it off, he gave the oversized canteen to Azulene. She quickly unscrewed the cap and threw the water in the air where the rest of the water was coming up from the ground.

"What are you doing?! I thought you said he needs water!"

"Alphonse, I've only got 45 seconds until your brother might suffer permanent brain damage. Please, do not question my methods!" Azulene yelled as she started to feel the top of Ed's head again. The memory flashes were now increased to 10 flashes. "We might have less time than I anticipated." She murmured to herself.

Azulene looked directly at Al and said, "When the water starts to fall down onto the ground, I want you to tell me when. When the water stops flowing out of the ground, I want you to tell me when, understand?!"

Al nodded his head and stared at the water behind Azulene.

Azulene laid Ed's head back down against the dusty dirt road. She put her left hand flat against the top of his head, and her right hand in the middle of his abdomen.

She leaned down toward his head, and whispered softly in his ear in Latin, "You don't have to die. You're too young. You have a long life to live." She felt the top of his head again. The flashes were now down to eight per half second, but that was still way too much. "Just think calm thoughts, stop thinking about whatever you thinking about before. Clear your mind of all bad thoughts . . . aequam servare mentem."

_To preserve a calm mind . . . _

"Azulene, the water stopped coming from the ground." Al said, turning around to face her.

Azulene nodded, and put one of her hands directly on the dirt road, while the other stayed directly on Ed's head. A blue light had suddenly started resonating around Ed's abdomen. Azulene slowly took her hand of the dirt ground and onto her own heart. A blue light had started to appear in the area where her heart would be.

The water that Azulene had transmuted from the ground, was now falling down in a way that was not unlike rain falling down from the sky. As it fell, the blue light that had been on parts of both Ed and Azulene's body, were now glowing in a brightness that was almost as bright as the sun's. Azulene looked up into the sky, seeing all the water falling down and hitting her face and the ground in soft little patters. She whispered something intelligible, and the water had immediately stopped falling. Azulene's and Ed's clothes, which were before sodden with water, were now instantly dried as if nothing had happened to them. If was as if the water never came to be. Even the dirt road around them was as dry as before.

Azulene looked down at the ground, and took an exasperated sigh. "He barely made it, you know that?" she whispered to Al. "He was thinking about his mother."

Al made a slight gasp. "Why was he acting like this then?"

Azulene looked at him in disbelief. "You don't get it do you? He was thinking of how he couldn't save her. About _the Human Transmutation_."

Al turned from her quickly as she mentioned those two words.

"I guess he was trying to think about all the good memories you guys had. " Azulene said while looking thoughtfully at Ed. She took her hand on her heart and closed his eyelids slowly. "He'll be awake in about an hour or so." Azulene stood up and looked at Al. "My house is about five minutes from here. Come. Let's go." Al walked back to pick up Ed from the dirt road. He looked as if he were just sleeping.

* * *

When Azulene, Al and Ed (albeit unconscious) arrived at Azulene's house, there was silence between them.

Azulene's house was a small house. It had actually looked like an over sized hut you would see in Hawaii.

"I constructed this house during my 4th year of alchemy. I made it out of branches, leaves, and spider's silk."

"Spiders' silk?" Al asked, very confused.

Azulene made a little chuckle. "Yeah. It does sound unlikely. But did you know, that if you weave a spider's silk together to make something like a braid, it's stronger than steel?"

"No. I didn't know that." Al answered, looking at the house in wonder.

"It's also very waterproof. So, I don't need to worry about my house when it rains." She said, looking at the house as well.

"You must have needed a lot of spider silk."

"No kidding. I had to get at least 200 spiders. But some of the townspeople helped me in collecting them. It took me six months to get all the silk I needed."

"That must have been a pain."

"Actually, it wasn't. It was actually pretty interesting to see how spiders create silk." Azulene took out a key from her hair and went to open the lock to the door. "Please, come in."

Al walked up to the doorframe and then lowered his head a couple of inches to walk inside, careful not to hit his brother's head on the side door frame.

* * *

Once inside the house, Al could finally stand up right.

"The house seems much bigger on the inside." Al said, looking at all the scenery in the house.

"Every person that comes into my house always says that. But I honestly don't get it."Azulene said walking into the kitchen.

When she came out of the kitchen, she had a glass of water in her hand.

"You can put him in the room in the back." She said pointing straight toward the back of her house.

Al nodded his head and walked straight toward the back of the house. He opened the door, and walked inside. The room was dark, but not too dark so that you couldn't see anything. Al walked over to the bed in the corner, and set Ed down carefully onto the bed. Al looked at him for a couple of seconds.

' _He honestly looks like he's sleeping . . . I just hope that he's okay . . . '_

Al slowly walked out of the room.

When Al closed the door to Ed's room, he saw Azulene sitting at the living room couch, sipping from her glass of water. When she heard the door close, she turned her head toward the room, and smiled at him.

"Please, come and sit." She said as she moved over a little on the couch.

Al walked over into the living room and sat next to Azulene. She put her glass of water on the side table next to her.

"I never got to tell you guys what I wanted to tell you." She said as her hands drifted back toward her stomach. "Everyone thought that after Sir David was killed by the murderer, his bloodline stopped. What they didn't know was that before he had died, his wife, Lady Sara, had declared that she was pregnant." Azulene looked at Al carefully. "I am now the end of his bloodline."

All was silent for a few minutes. Azulene began speaking, saying, " When I was born, I had a twin sister. Her name was Rosalina. If you don't get the pun, we were both named after colors in Spanish." Azulene made a little chuckle. "Though we were twins, we looked completely different. She had light brown eyes, while I had dark blue. My eye color was unusual for someone living in the desert. And none of my parents, nor their ancestors ever had blue eyes. She had straight brown hair with red highlights, while I had wavy blonde hair with light brown highlights. Also very unusual. We were supposed to be identical, but that really didn't seem to be the case. One day, a person had knocked on the door of our home. She was very pregnant and said that she had to use the bathroom. We let her, but then, when she came out . . . " Azulene paused for a second and looked down at the floor. When she looked up, her face was covered in tears, and her irises were being diluted from the excess of tears coming out of her eyes. She continued saying, her voice low and raw, " she killed my parents and my sister. But yet she spared me. She didn't even come at me with the knife she had. All she did was touch my forehead, and said a few words in Latin. She said, 'sic itur ad astra'. It means, 'such is the way to immortality'. All I kept yelling at her was that I wanted her to kill me too. So I could be with my family. But she kept saying no. She said that I was the key to life. The true answer. The real meaning of life. And then she left. She walked out as if nothing had happened. She even said 'thanks for letting me use the bathroom'. I was just 7 years old." Azulene rested her head on her two hands and started to cry. She cried as hard as she could.

Al looked at her, wishing that he could comfort her somehow.

* * *

After Azulene finished crying after a long 10 minutes, she finally spoke, her voice still raw saying, "And then a few weeks later, when I went out to buy groceries for myself, and I was paying the grocer, I immediately saw his life flash before my eyes. I was very confused when this happened to me. I saw everything that happened in that man's life. It was as if I was seeing it through my own eyes. Horrible things happened to that man during his lifetime. He was the victim of child abuse, by his father, no less. His mother was an alcoholic and beat him very often. His brother committed suicide when he was 17. And yet he was smiling at me and telling me to have a wonderful day. I immediately ran home after that. I didn't know what had just happened to me. And then all the years had started to blend together. Every person that I had talked to, I now knew of their life history. Complete strangers that I have never met before, I now knew their tale. You could guess that I'm very empathetic towards other people. To this day, I still don't know who gave me this ability. Maybe I was born with it. As I got older, I convinced myself that it was the lady who did this to me, but I'm not even sure about that." Azulene wiped the tears from her face. "And then I turned 19. That was 4 months ago. I wanted to know what the lady had whispered in my ear when I was little. It still echoes in my head to this day. I left this town and walked through the desert just as you did to go to Central. But I have never been out of the desert. Everything was so foreign to me. But I had heard that there was a library there filled with books on every subject. Some Latin books were bound to be there. We don't have those kinds of books here."

Al nodded, remembering the big library in Central in his memory.

Azulene's hands drifted towards her stomach again, as she looked up at Al. She had a smile on her face, despite all the things she had said before. "I met someone. His name was Joshua. He saw that I was lost, and asked if I was searching for something. I told him that I was looking for a huge library. He laughed and said that it was right in front of me. I looked up and saw a big sign saying: _'Central Library'_. I laughed and said thank you and continued walking. He ran up behind and said that I needed to be in the military to enter the library. I had a big frown on my face. I mean, how would you feel if you travel a long way for something, and then realize that you can't even have it?"

"I'd feel devastated," Al said, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

"Exactly," Azulene said while pointing a finger at him. "But Joshua lifted my hopes saying that he was part of the military and that he could get me inside, just as long as I was with him. I was so happy at that point, that I gave a big hug. No one should ever do that to a complete stranger. But he didn't seem to mind. Actually, he was blushing.

"Once we were inside of the library, I asked him what he did in the military. He said that he was on of the workers who copied papers for their bosses. He said that it was a well paying job, and that at least he didn't have to out and fight. He asked me why I needed to be in the library. I said that I was very interested in Latin, and that where I was from, there weren't any books on the language, and I heard that there were massive amounts on books in this library, and it was the closest library. He asked me where I was from. I said the desert. He laughed and thought that it was a joke. When he realized that I was serious, he sat me down at a table and told me that he'll be right back. I waited for a couple minutes, and saw him wheel out a carts of books as high as the mountains . . ." By this point, Azulene looked as if she were staring off into blank space.

_**"What's this?" Azulene asked, shocked at the massive amount of books being rolled to the table she was sitting at.**_

_**"How long are you staying here?" Joshua asked, sounding very out of breath.**_

_**"I don't really know." Azulene answered with a very embarrassed smile.**_

_**"Well, I hope you're staying more than 2 months here. It's gonna take at least that amount for us to even make a dent in this.**_

_**"What are you talking about?"**_

_**"Well, if you're going to read all these books, you're going to need me to get in all the time. And I'm not just going to sit around and watch you read." he said with a tiny smile one his face.**_

_**"You want to study Latin?"**_

_**"It seems pretty interesting ."**_

_**"But it's awfully difficult."**_

_**"I think I can manage." Joshua said with a big smile.**_

Azulene looked down at her stomach again as her smile grew bigger. " We got to know a lot about each other over the months. I ended up staying longer in that foreign town because of him. It was during my 3rd month's stay when after we finished reading yet another pile of books, that he asked me out on a date. I agreed. Well, actually, it was more of having dinner with a friend to me, but it seemed much more than that to him. At this point, I had considered myself slightly infatuated with him. He was much like your brother in some ways. Serious most of the time, but he does have his moments. But the only odd thing was that I didn't see his life flash through my eyes when I first saw him. Every single person that I had looked straight into their eyes, I saw their life. But with, him, I saw nothing. Maybe he was special in someway, I don't know. When we went on our date, he had declared his love to me. He said he loved me since the first time he had seen. He gave me this necklace." Azulene said, pointing to the dark sapphire necklace around her neck, that matched perfectly with the color of her irises. "He said it took him 3 months to earn all the money to buy it for me. He said that it matches perfectly with my eyes."

Al nodded his head, agreeing with her.

" I said 'thank you' and kissed him on the lips. I said, 'I love you too'. I told him that I promise to wear this necklace for the rest of my life until I died." Azulene cradled her stomach closer to her hands. "It wasn't long before I found out that I was pregnant. I wasn't sure if I should tell him or not. But, nonetheless, I went over to his house. But he wasn't there. There was a note on the floor saying that he had been sent off to war. I felt terrible. He was just a person who copied papers. How were they just going to send him off to war? I cried. I cried and cried, until I couldn't cry any more. Joshua, the love of my life was gone forever. And that's was when I decided to go back to my town. There was no reason for me to stay there. I had already found out what I needed to know months ago. I only stayed because of him."

She looked at Al with her eyes tearing up and a tiny smile on her face. "I don't know whether he's alive or not. But I pray every night, that he is. And that he'll find me. And that we'll be together again."

Al put his hand on her shoulder_._ "I sure hope that you find him."

Azulene wiped some of the tears away from her face. "I just got back two weeks ago. It happened so recently, yet it feels like it's happened years ago. But let me tell you something. I am going to make sure that this baby is safe for it's entire lifespan. I'll go to the depths of Hell and back before this child gets hurt. That's a promise." she finished, sounding very serious about her words.

"Have you thought of any names?" Al asked trying to comfort her to keep her from crying again..

"Not really. But, if it's a boy, I was thinking Chrisian, and if it's a girl, I was thinking Avery or Autumn . I was never into the whole 'Jr.' thing.

"Those names sound really nice, Azulene." Al said, while patting her back softly.

Azulene wiped the rest of her tears away as she spoke, saying, "Your brother should be waking up soon. You should be there when he wakes up." she got up and walked inside the kitchen. "You should tell him what I just told you."

* * *

On that note... just wanted to to tell you what 'memory flashes' are.

In my mind, I believe that every person has their entire memory flash throught their heads every day without noticing or realizing it. The normal rate which is 1 to 3 flashes, the kind of dangerous rate, what I like to call the Immediate Attention rate, 5 to 8 flashes, and the rate that if you don't think of something calm, you'll have extreme permanent brain damage is something I like to call the Final Destination rate (thought of the movie... kinda of a dark joke, but fits...), that's over 10 flashes per second. A person should be between the normal and the early numbers of the Immediate Attention, unless they're under major stress, like Edward.

Oh... and the reason for the water Azulene transmuted. She did that to try and get the energy from the water below her to help her produce calm thoughts for Ed. Strange girl, isn't she?

Anyways, over and out, hasta la vista, adios, arevior (i didn't spell that right), arrivaderci (that one too) and what ever many of goodbyes you can come up with in world! (And trust me, there's a HELL of a lot to come up with)

Oh, and BYE! (Can't believe I forgot that!)


	3. Transmutation Circles

I can't believe that people are actually starting to read this. Yet I still have no reviews... Hmm... Maybe one of you guys could fix that for me....

Just kidding. XD

I'm just happy with the amount of people reading this story.

I know it sounds boring in the beginning, and the last part may not really make that much sense, but it will all come together in the next chapter.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

~ **_I wish you all sun, sea, and books. ~ NISISON_**

* * *

_** Chapter 3 : Transmutation Circles and The Distorted History**_

Al walked toward the back of the house to the room to where he set Ed down to rest. Once he opened the door, he was, just as Azulene predicted, waking up.

"Ed? Are you okay?" Al asked walking toward the bed where Ed was at while leaving the door open.

"Ugh, my head . . . it feels like I spun around in a circle 1,000 times." Ed said while holding his head.

"You need the light on?' Al asked.

"Sure, but don't speak so loud." Ed said quietly.

Al walked over toward the light in the corner. Once he turned it on, he had heard Ed made something that had sounded like a wincing sound.

"You'll get used to it," Al said walking toward his bed.

"Wait . . . where are we?" Ed asked while he slowly looked around the foreign room in which he was in.

"We're at Azulene's house." Al answered simply.

Al was pretty shocked when he saw the anger in his brother's eyes. They almost looked deadly.

"Let's go," Ed said in a low voice while getting out of the bed. He stumbled a little bit from the sudden change in movement.

"She had a reason, you know," Al said, trying to stop his brother.

"Don't care. Let's go," Ed said, walking toward the doorway.

"Can you stop being so stubborn for once?" Al said, running to block the doorway.

"Oww! Not so loud!" Ed said, holding the side of his head.

"She saved your life, and you're not even going to be grateful about it." Al said, sounding disappointed and frustrated at the same time.

"But she was the one who caused me to go into that state." Ed answered, walking back toward the bed. Once he sat down, he continued saying, "She brought up the worst parts of our lives, Al. Those memories were something that we had promised never to tell anyone. And she got all that from what? Claiming that she can read people's minds? You'd have to be crazy to believe that!"

"She talked to me. She told me all about her past. If you saw the look on her face as she told me, you would have believed her as well." Al went to go close the door behind him.

"She could have been lying. She could be a very good actor." Ed counteracted.

"I'm telling you, if you saw her eyes, the way she talked, you would see that she wasn't lying. Quite frankly, I don't think she's ever lied in her entire life." Al said, trying to convince his brother.

"Then what was her past about? What made it so heartfelt that you're convinced that she wasn't lying?" Ed said a little harshly.

Al took a deep sigh. He went and told Azulene's story for her. Telling all the parts. Al told him about how she was the last bloodline connected to Sir David. Al told him about how her parents and twin sister were brutally stabbed to death by a pregnant woman who was claiming to be needing to use the bathroom. He told him the phrase that she whispered in Azulene's ear. He told him about the first discovery of her powers. How she went to Central and met a guy named Joshua, and then had gotten pregnant by him. Basically Al had told Ed every single thing that had came out of Azulene's mouth.

Once Al was finished telling Azulene's past, he said, "Now, do you understand why I believe her? You can't make up that kind of past and say it the way I heard it."

"Wow . . . I had no idea she went through that much . . . " Ed said, looking down at the ground in remorse. "Well, that explains the reason why she hates seeing things get killed . . . "

"It looks like she knows what we're going through. The pain and suffering we had. She's received worse."

"But at least she's found refuge."

"The baby. She promised to protect it until the day it dies. She's not going to let anything happened to it."

"I feel so guilty now . . . "

"That's new." Al said, surprised.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ed asked, looking up from the ground.

"Nothing. It's just that it's been a long time since I've seen that emotion come out of you."

"Whatever," Ed dismissed, looking around the room.

"Wait, Ed, there's more." Al said, trying to get his brother's attention.

"What is it?"

"She said that she can help us out with finding the Philosopher's Stone."

"Really?" Ed asked, sounding curious as he raised his head.

"Yeah, but that's not all." Al said, sounding disdained.

"What's wrong?" Ed asked.

"She did alchemy without a transmutation circle." Al said, speaking in hushed tones.

Ed's eyes widened as he heard his brother finish the words of that sentence. "When?" Ed asked so quietly, it was almost as if he were mouthing the word.

"When she was saving you. She just put her hands on the ground and transmuted some water out of the ground. Just like what you and I did in the desert." Al whispered.

"Do you think . . . she's seen the truth?" Ed asked almost silently.

The room fell silence for a couple of minutes.

"I highly doubt it. It seems that all of her body parts are there. Although she could be missing internal organs like Teacher . . . " Al whispered to his brother breaking the silence.

"That means that she would have had to done a human transmutation." Ed said in a harsh whisper. "If she hates seeing ants get killed, there's no way that she would try and revive someone that's dead."

"Maybe she has an incomplete Philosopher's Stone," Al said.

"And why would she have one? A better question is, where did she get one from?"

"She could have tried to bring back her family." Al said as a suggestion.

"You said she was seven when her family was murdered?" Ed asked more as a statement than a question.

Al nodded his head as a response.

"There's no way she could have tried. It takes years to learn about the basics of alchemy. You'd have to have perfected the basics and the advanced levels before you even start to read about human transmuting."

"She could have been like us and read through the books quicker than her classmates."

Ed shook his head slightly. "It'd still be highly unlikely." Ed got up from the bed and started to walk towards the door.

"What are you going to do?" Al asked, turning around to face his brother.

"Why go to the trouble of contemplating a bunch of theories when we could just ask her?" Ed asked as he grabbed the doorhandle. He turned around and smiled at his younger brother. "It was a good idea to stay after all. Thanks, Al."

Al made a deep sigh of annoyance in response.

When Ed and Al both walked out of the room in which Ed was sleeping in, Ed had smelled a wonderful aroma all throughout the house. As they neared closer toward the kitchen, they has started to hear the sound of kitchen utensils jangling all about.

"Where's the kitchen?" Ed whispered to his brother.

"Over here," Al said while pointing to the left side of him.

"You guys don't have to whisper. These hallways walls are like paper." Azulene said above all the loud noise coming from the kitchen.

Both Elric brothers took a deep sigh and continued to walk towards the kitchen. Once they were both inside of the kitchen, they had seen Azulene stirring something in a large black pot. When Ed took in a deep breath, he had registered the smell as something very familiar.

"So . . . what's that you're cooking?" Ed asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as he possibly could, even though he was really curious.

Azulene put the spoon down In the counter, and smiled at Ed. "I think you know exactly what this, but if you must know, when I was seeing Alphonse's life, I saw him reading a lot of your mom's cookbooks, so . . . I guess you can think of this as a sort of an apology gift from what happened before."

"Really now? Well, you don't have to do that. It's fine." Ed said while rubbing the back of his head. He took a step closer inside the kitchen. "Is it stew?"

Azulene nodded and went back to stirring the concoction. "It's your favorite. I just hope Alphonse memorized it correctly, or it may not come out as good as it smells." She said while making a small laugh.

Al nodded his head. "I memorized it to perfection."

"Well then, I guess I don't have to worry about the food tasting bad." Azulene said while smiling. "Why don't you guys go sit down at the kitchen table? The stew will be ready in just a couple of minutes."

Ed and Al both walked in the kitchen surprised to see how big it was. The kitchen table had looked more like a dining table than what a table in a breakfast nook should look like.

"Nice house you have." Ed said as he was sitting down in the kitchen seat.

"Thank you. Why don't you tell him about the house, Alphonse? I'm quite surprised that you didn't tell him. You've told him everything else." Azulene said as she was reaching for two bowls in the dish cabinet.

"Azulene made this house using alchemy. She made it out of branches, leaves, and spider silk." Al answered simply.

"Spider silk?" Ed asked Azulene in the same fashion as Al did.

"Alphonse?" Azulene asked as she started dipping a ladle into the stew and scooped out some stew and emptied it into a bowl.

"If you braid spider silk together, then it becomes a substance that's stronger than steel. And it's very waterproof." Al explained.

"That's interesting," Ed said while nodding his head.

"Okay you guys. I really hope that it came out like your mom's did. But you can never be too sure about these kind of things." Azulene said as she carried two bowls with spoons in them towards the kitchen table. She set one bowl down in front Ed and the other one down on the opposite side of them, appearing to be her seat.

" Smells really good.' Ed said as he took a scoop of the delicious smelling stew and slowly put it into his mouth. He tasted the concoction silently.

"Well, what do you think?" Azulene asked, sounding a little hopeful.

Ed hesitated for a couple of seconds, and looked at Azulene. With a big smile on his face, he answered her question, saying, "Could use a little salt, but either way, it's really good!"

Azulene let out an exasperated sigh.

After Ed quickly ate the first bowl of stew, and then to Azulene's surprise, asked for 2 more bowls and downed those quickly as well, Azulene said in a very surprised tone, "Well, I'm glad you enjoyed the food."

" I told you it was really good." Ed answered very simply.

"Well, you certainly don't lie," Azulene said, just finishing her first bowl. Then, as she took the two bowls and spoons towards the sink and started to wash them, she said," You wanted to ask me a question, right?"

Both Elric brothers looked at her confusingly, both about to ask how she knew that.

Azulene looked back at them, seeing their confused faces. She took a deep sigh and looked at them again with a very obvious look, and pointed to her head saying, "Remember?"

Both of the brothers looked relieved and said, "Oh," at the same time.

Ed started to speak, saying," Well, when Al was telling me your story, he said something that just did not sound right to me."

Azulene nodded her head, and then answered, saying,"You want to know why I can do alchemy without a transmutation circle." She looked back at them and saw them both nodding their heads. She took a deep sigh, and turned the sinkwater off. Then, just as she was grabbing a towel to dry the dishes off, she continued saying, "I'm not really sure how I can do alchemy with out a circle. I certainly didn't get it the way you guys did. I would never do a human transmutation. When I was younger, I honestly thought that I have reached the level of alchemy that I didn't need a transmutation circle. But when I started to see people who were on their 10th or 11th year of alchemy and they were still using circles, and I had gotten really confused." After she put the dishes back into their correct places, she turned away from the sink to face them. "I think that my family's murderer might have given me that ability, but I'm not really sure."

Ed looked at her confusingly. "But that doesn't make any sense."

"My whole life hasn't made sense since I was 7 years old. Nothing's ever made any sense at all. I know the proper way of being able to transmute without a circle, but I've never seen any 'truth' or a door of some sort. All my body parts are here, to my knowledge. Nothing's been taken away from me. I haven't payed any price." Azulene murmured.

"It could be that you don't remember going through the door," Al said as a suggestion.

Azulene made a deep sigh. "It could be, but I don't remember blacking out at any time."

"Was there ever a time in your life that you felt like you were missing something, but couldn't remember what it was?" Ed asked as another suggestion.

"If you mean, my body parts, no. If you mean actual people," She looked at them with a serious face, "every single day of my life." She crossed her arms and stared at the tiled floor. "Guys, I'm sorry that I can't answer your questions. I don't really know the answers to them myself. My whole life's been an entire mystery. Some days, I wake up not even knowing who I am. But, I can help you with something else." She looked at the brothers again with a smile on her face. "The precious stone, or what you would call the Philosopher's Stone. I can help you find one."

Both Ed and Al looked at with disbelief. It wasn't really this easy, was it?

"How do you know where one is?" Al asked.

"I told you, I'm the last alive bloodline of Sir David. When David was going over the plans with the town's scientist, and the two state alchemists, he wrote down special notes on them. What the townspeople didn't know was that they actually created two precious stones, instead of one. On the day when he was murdered, David had experimented with the second stone in his office. In his special notes he wrote down all the observations that he saw within the stone." Azulene had walked away just as she finished that sentence. When she arrived a couple of minutes later, she had a small red leather book in her hands.

"This is the book in which David wrote his notes in." She walked towards the kitchen table and placed on top of the table. She walked out of the room again and came back with a small mirror in her hand, not unlike the one Ed had used back at the restaurant. "It's in our native language, so you'll need this to read it with." As she sat down at the table with them, she said, "Go directly to page 39. That's all you'll need to figure out where the precious stone is."

Ed quickly picked up the book and the mirror and went directly to the page that Azulene had just said. The passage had said:

30 May 1826

I sit here inside of my office, looking at the precious stone. For some reason, I feel as if I am God every time I hold the stone in my hand. I feel... powerful. I feel as if I am stronger than any human being. But I also feel as if I have crossed too far into God's territory. Just last night, I had a dream that I was neither accepted to Heaven nor Hell, and was forced to wander in darkness for eternity. I immediately woke up screaming, thus waking up Sara and my unborn child. Maybe, perhaps this is a sign. At first, I was excited when Alvin and the State Alchemists told me that the created a Philosopher's Stone, as the Alchemists like to call it. I was even more surprised when they said they had created two of the stones. Ever since I showed the first one to the townspeople, I had felt a little guilty inside. I feel that I should tell them about the second stone as well. But that might end up in a riot. Alvin and the State Alchemists also discourage me to do so as well. But I have this little voice in my head. It is telling me to hide the stone in a place where no one else can find it. Even as I begin to grow old, I will too forget of the Stone's whereabout's. Perhaps, I will hide in a church. A place that is dear to me. Or a place that I despise. Either way, it will be either in this town or in Central, though I don't trust the Alchemists. If I suddenly die on this day, or any other day, I will blame the military and their useless government. I know that they are just using us because of our advanced technology over their delightful pieces of trash. I know that I shan't talk so badly about the government, but they're the reason I am feeling guilt. They're the reason I am waking up my wife in the middle of the night with my violent screams. They're the reason why I feel that I am not going to Heaven or Hell when I die. Should that happen, I will have my soul haunt the lives of every State Alchemist and cause each and every one misfortune for the rest of eternity.

Ed gazed at the book for a couple of more seconds, and then put it down slowly. "The Stone," he said slowly as he closed his eyes, "it's in the original place of Station Village or in Central."

Azulene nodded her head vigorously. "See, I told you that I could help you! Now you know where one of the stones are!"

"But what about the other one? The one that Sir David showed to the town?"

"It must be with the murderer." Al answered.

"But something still doesn't sound right." Ed said, opening his eyes. "Al, do you still have that guide book you were reading before?"

Al nodded his head, and slowly opened his chest plate and took out the guide book. He placed on the table, and Ed took it quickly and started flipping through the pages.

"What's wrong, Ed?"Al asked in curiosity.

"He remembers someone named Marcoh saying that you can't use an incomplete Philosopher's Stone the way you could use a complete one." Azulene answered, sounding a little concerned.

"See? Here it is!" Ed said as he put the book on the table to show to Azulene. She slowly took the book and looked at the page.

"The history? You think that someone messed with the history?" Azulene said, reading his mind.

"Just read that part," Ed said, pointing at a paragraph in the middle of the book.

Azulene started to read the portion of the book slowly. '_On the 18th of May in 1826 Mayor David and the two alchemists, who had become well acquainted with the people of Station Village, despite their title, revealed something magical. The mayor held up a tube filled with red liquid, and poured out the contents onto the podium that was in front of him. The contents turned into a ball even though it was liquefied. The Mayor said to the townspeople that this was something that was called the Philosopher's Stone. He described it as ' a substance that could give you the equivalent of having Godlike powers'. He gave a demonstration of the Philosopher's Stone, by having a piece of wheat, a turned it into an entire loaf of bread. He then took a glass of water, and turned it into wine. He took a tiny pebble and turned it into a bar of gold. He did many more demonstrations that day, and people were amazed at all the power that was in the little stone.'_

Azulene slowly looked at Ed, who was sitting there with a slight smirk on his face. "The history can't be true," Azulene said as if she were in a trance.

'_The contents turned into a ball even though it was liquefied._'

She looked deeply into Ed's eyes.

'_He gave a demonstration of the Philosopher's Stone, by having a piece of wheat, a turned it into an entire loaf of bread. He then took a glass of water, and turned it into wine. He took a tiny pebble and turned it into a bar of gold.__'_

" You can't do that with an incomplete stone, can you?" she said almost silently.

Ed's smirk widened a little bit, as he answered, saying, "No, you can't."

* * *

Peoples, before you start:

1. I know that an incomplete Philosopher's Stone can be used like a complete can. Not the way the Mayor used it though....

2. Azulene never went to see the 'truth', nor did she lose any parts of her body whatsoever. Only I know the reason, but it won't show up until WAY later in the story. You can guess if you like...

3. The 'accident' is coming soon, so brace yourselves... (not very surprising though... actually, it's very random...)

That's all I can come up with now.

I'm done.

Please Review! (I need me some reviews!)

Allright.

You can go now...

See you next time! *Cough* Tomorrow!

Bye!

AluminaHeaven, out!


	4. Death of a Loved One

Today is a sad day...

The end of my slightly-unexpected 4 day weekend....

This and the next chapter is also the reason why my day is sadder than it should be...

Depression at it's very best...

I'm gonna go now...

Sadness.... =(

* * *

_**Chapter 4: Death of a Loved One**_

"My whole town's history . . . It's all fake?" Azulene asked very hesitantly.

"Well, not all of it. Just the part about the Philosopher's Stone." Al answered as simply as he could.

"Although, this journal entry might be fake as well," Ed muttered as he started to read through the town's history again.

"You think that someone forged the entry, don't you? I don't need to read your mind to know that." Azulene said as she rested her head on top of her right hand, supporting it in the air. "But who would possibly want to forge that journal entry?"

"Sir David was the mayor. He knew about a stone that could give you Godlike powers as the history says. He even started to doubt himself about not revealing the second stone to his people. Why wouldn't somebody want to kill him?"

"How dare you say that?!" Azulene said, shocked. "You make it sound like as soon as he revealed the precious stone, he was bound to be killed."

"In a way, he was." Al said, reading the journal. Once he closed it, and put it on the table, he said, "The killer must have forged this. I looked at all the other entries, which appeared to have rushed handwriting, like he was in a hurry to write them. And they appeared short, like seven or eight sentences long. This entry seemed like he had time to write it, because of its smooth streaks. Well, smooth compared to the other entries. Anyways, the entry is also significantly longer than all the other entries, taking up 2 ½ pages. The killer or someone else must have written a false journal entry to try and trick whoever might try reading it."

"Maybe he had enough time to write this journal entry. Have you ever thought of that?" Azulene said, defending her ancestor.

"Azulene, the guy was mayor of a town. I doubt that he even had time to eat or go to the bathroom half the time. It's very unlikely that he would take the time to write something that long in his journal." Ed said, keeping his eyes on the guide.

"Maybe the journal entry that was previously was revealing too much information to somebody's liking." Al said as a suggestion.

"But that means that the killer had to be close enough to David to know that he had a journal where he records information." Azulene contemplated.

Ed closed the book and put it down on the table. Then, he looked at Azulene and spoke, saying, "It sounds to me that we're trying to solve a 180-year-old murder case. Whoever the killer was, and whatever reason they wanted a stone, there's without a doubt in my mind that they're dead right now. Even if we were to find out who it was, it would be no good."

"It could be worthwhile information in the long run. This journal entry was written on the day that David was assassinated. It could help to find the location of where the other stone is."

"In the entry, it said that David would hide it either in original area of this town or in Central. I highly doubt that it's Central because even if this entry was a fake, I certainly wouldn't like it if two State Alchemists just barged into my town started working on something that's crossing into God's territory." Ed said in somewhat of a bittersweet tone.

"So, it's in the original area of Station Village." Azulene said more as a statement than a question.

"It has to be. There's no other place."Ed answered while slowly closing his eyes.

"So, when are you guys leaving?" Azulene asked.

"Maybe tomorrow afternoon."

"Let me go with you." Azulene said, a little hopeful.

"You can't. You're pregnant." Ed said simply.

"It's a 40-mile walk. And the heat could damage the baby." Al also said simply.

Azulene slowly leaned back into her seat, disdained. As she let out a long breath, she said, "So, you guys aren't coming back?"

Both of the brothers shook their heads.

"Well, I still want to help more." Azulene said, sounding a little desperate.

"You've helped enough, Azulene." Al said, looking at her. "This is just something that we have to do our own."

"For some reason, my mind's telling me that I have to help you more." She said, mostly to herself.

_'Like I have to keep you from something bad happening . . . ' _

Azulene stood up from her seat. "I'm going to bed. If you need a place to stay, you guys can use the bedroom that you used before." She said, not looking at any of them. She then walked away and toward the back of the house. A door was opened, then closed. Then nothing.

A few minutes of silence settled inside of the house.

"Why do you think she wants to come with us?" Al had asked suddenly.

" I really don't know."

" Maybe she doesn't want to be alone."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Must you be so vague about things?" Al said, sounding a little annoyed.

"I'm not being vague. I just really don't know." Ed said as he took a deep sigh. Then, as he stood up from his seat, he started to say, "I'm tired too. I'm going to bed."

"It was probably all that food that you ate. You shouldn't eat comfort food in that much excess." Al said while standing up as well.

"Don't treat me like a baby. Besides, she's a good cook." Ed answered while he started to walk towards the back of the house.

"Did it taste like Mom's?" Al asked hesitantly.

Ed stopped in his footsteps. He turned around slowly to face his brother. Then slowly, he stated to say, sounding a little confused, "It tasted exactly the same."

The next day was, to this town's extent, pretty normal. Today's holiday was `_experiment day_'. To Ed and Al `s surprise, Azulene told them something completely different than the actual name lead them to believe . . .

"Experiment day means that you have to make a meal that is way out of your cooking range. In laymen's terms, you have to cook something that you have never cooked before." Azulene answered, while her `experiment' was cooking over the stove in the kitchen. "Then you have to share with a person that you don't really know. Which is why I'm sharing with you guys. I may know everything about you, but I have no idea of what kind of people you guys are."

"Who comes up with the ideas for the holidays? Half of them don't even make any sense." Ed said, still half asleep.

"It's just a way to keep us entertained every day. Living in the middle of the desert can be quite boring." Azulene said simply while stirring her 'experiment'.

"So, what are you cooking?" Al asked, curious.

"Can't tell you. No one can tell anyone they made until they started eating it."

"That's a ripoff." Ed muttered while yawning.

"You think that's a ripoff? You have to eat the entire plate of food, whether you like it or not." Azulene said, giving off a light-hearted laugh.

"What if you're highly allergic to something in the food?" Al asked.

"I'm thinking that's the only exception to the rule." Ed answered.

Azulene shook her head firmly. "Actually, it's not. When you guys leave, you'll probably be seeing a lot of people carrying Epi pens with them."

"Then that's really is a ripoff."

"That is true, but sometimes it can be really fun. You get to taste a lot of delicious food on this day." Azulene said as she went towards the cabinet and took out two plates.

"Without knowing of wether you're going to die or not. What a wonderful holiday." Ed said, very sarcastically.

"Either way, you're going to have to eat this, so why not enjoy. Here, I'll give hints. Are you allergic to any kind of nuts?"

"No."

"Flour?"

"No."

"Eggs?"

"No."

"Chocolate?"

"No."

"Banana?"

"No."

"Onions?"

"No."

"Peppers?"

"Are you going through every single ingredient you put in the food?" Ed asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Wouldn't want you dying on me," Azulene said a little sarcastically. "I could have put a dangerous ingredient that could kill you within seconds."

Ed smiled a very, very, extremely sarcastic smile. "Just bring the food over here."

"No need to be so bossy," Azulene said as she brought two plates to the kitchen table. Just like last night, she set one plate down in front of Ed, and the other one in front of her seat, directly across from them.

Ed looked at the contents on his plate with slight restraint. The contents on his plate were a substance not unlike eggs mixed with rice. The food, of course, did smell good enough to eat, but he still wasn't sure.

"Can't you tell me what this is?" Ed pleaded.

"I have to tell you while you're eating. If you really want to know, then start eating," Azulene answered while taking a bite of her concoction.

Ed looked down at his plate and made a small groan. His behavior was almost identical to that of a 7-year-old refusing to eat his vegetables. But, even so, he picked up his fork, and dug into the rice/egg-like mixture. He brought the fork close to his mouth, but before he did, he said, "If I start spazzing out on the floor, I'm blaming you."

"I doubt something like that will happen," Azulene answered, almost finished with her plate of food.

"I'm serious," Ed said as he started to eat the food. After a few seconds of chewing the food, his face went completely blank.

"Is there something wrong?" Al asked Azulene.

Azulene picked up her plate and went to the sink. "Not at all," she said with a slight tone of smugness in her tone. "He likes it."

Al looked at her confusingly and then looked at his brother, who was eating the contents on his plate surprisingly quickly. In the amount of 35 seconds, he had consumed everything on his entire plate.

"I take it you really liked it?" Azulene asked as she was walking towards the kitchen table.

"You still never told me what was in it," Ed said, leaning more into his seat.

"It just what you thought it was," Azulene answered simply. "With a few extra ingredients added to it."

"Really?"

Azulene nodded her head and took Ed's plate and began to wash it in the sink.

"It was really good, especially considering you never made it before." Ed said.

"Why thank you. That was probably the nicest thing you've said to me this morning." Azulene said with a smile.

"Not much of a morning person, I guess."

The rest of the morning went by in such a blur. After Azulene had clean from this morning's breakfast, there was a knock at her door. It was a lady and her two children, each having a dish they wanted Azulene to taste. She took the three dishes, and in return gave them three plates of the food she had made this morning. After they left, Azulene had taken out an Epi-pen (for she was allergic to strawberries and certain types of seafood) and began to eat the dishes.

The sun had set along the desert sky and it was when the time had came for Ed and Al to part their ways with Azulene. As they were leaving her house, she had said, "Are you sure that you guys won't come back here?"

"We might, but right now, this is something that we have to do." Al said.

"I know," Azulene had answered sadly.

"Yeah. By the time we come back here, you probably won't recognize us!" Ed had said, trying to bring up Azulene's sprits.

Azulene made a big smile. "I still feel that I need to go with you, but I guess I can't." Her hands absentmindly went to her stomach. "By the time, you guys come back, this baby's going to be all grown up. "

"It's not going to be that long," Al said.

"I know, it's just . . . it feels like you guys are going to be one of those people who promise that they're going to visit as soon as they can, but then never come back." Azulene said as a tear started to roll down her cheek.

"We're not those kind of people." Ed said, looking at Azulene.

Azulene wiped away the lone tear. "You're sure you're going to come back?"

Ed put his hand atop of Azulene's shoulder. "Before you know it." He answered with a smile.

After long goodbyes and solemn promises, the Elric Brothers were finally on their way towards the original settlement of Station Village.

After having walked 10 minutes away from Azulene's house, a voice had interrupted their travel.

"Leaving so soon?"

Both Ed and Al stopped in their tracks, as they both heard the voice. They both turned around, then looked to the left and right directions in perfect unison. "Did you hear that?" Ed had whispered to his younger brother. Al nodded his head in agreement.

The voice had made a deep sigh. "Up here, guys."

Both of them had looked up on the roofs of the houses around them. The entire street around had suddenly turned silent, and the people walking and kids playing outside, were suddenly gone. It was if they had disappeared.

On the roof two houses away ( about 15 feet away) from the brothers, a female figure was seen waving at them. The figure then stopped waving and stood up on top of the roof and walked towards the edge of the roof and jumped down. As soon as it hit the dusty dirt road, both of the brothers had turned around to the source of the sound.

"I was really hoping that you would stay a little longer." The figure said sounding a little disappointed as it walked closer to them.

"Do we know you?" Al had asked.

The figure had stopped in its footsteps. Then, as it gave off a light-hearted laugh, it answered, saying, "No, you don't know me. But I know everything about you." As the figure started walking closer to them, it continued talking. "I know, your past, present, and future. And let me tell you. Not the happiest ending for either of you." The figure said, making a mocking wincing sound.

Both of the Elric brothers looked confused. "I have the slightest sense of deja vu." Ed had whispered almost silently to his younger brother. He saw flashes going through his head of how this encounter was similar to when they were walking to Azulene's house.

"It's not deja vu." The figure said stopping almost 5 feet away from them. She had long, sleek black hair that went all the way to the bottom of her waist with dark brown highlights running all throughout her hair. She looked like a teenager. Her eye color was a mixture of light green and bluish-gray, almost making them look like a hazel color. She was wearing tan colored shorts that went to the middle of her thighs, and a bright white tank top. "This time, someone's going to actually die this time." The girl had stopped of a couple of seconds, then made a disgruntled sound. "Oh rude of me! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Vanessa Pelsen." She said with a warm smile.

Both brothers looked at her with the same looks as before.

"Wait, did you just say that one of us . . . is going to die?" Ed asked slowly, starting to get defensive.

Vanessa nodded her head. And then, with a smile on her face, she began to say, "Yeah. One of you guys are going to die today. But I'm not going to tell you which one." Then in a singsong voice, she continued, saying, "That would ruin all the suspension of knowing, don't you think?"

"I guess it would. But, if you actually do know everything about me, as you say, you would know that I really don't like being surprised." Ed answered in a nonchalant tone.

"I know that," Vanessa said with an obvious tone. " I'm just doing it to agitate you. I don't lie about things I know. And besides if I actually told you, then you would try to fight back. As you can see, I'm wearing a white shirt. It's brand new. I really don't feel like spending the rest of my day tomorrow trying to clean out blood stains. They're very stubborn to get out of clothing, you know." She answered with the same smile on her face.

"Yeah, I know. Not really my ideal way to spend an entire day doing that either." Ed said with a slight smirk on his face.

Vanessa tilted her head slightly to the right and walked five steps closer to the brothers. She then made a light-hearted laugh and said, "Even if you could hurt me, there's no way that you could hurt me so badly to make me bleed." She closed her eyes slowly. "See, I'm not like any other human. Even I don't consider myself to be human anymore. And you know why?" She opened her eyes quickly and put her hands into her pocket and pulled out a red shiny marble. "It's all because of this stone right here. Beautiful, isn't it?" She asked, mostly to herself as she rolled the smooth stone between her fingertips.

Both Ed and Al made a sudden loud gasp when they had seen what Vanessa had in her hand. It was a Philosopher's Stone she had in her hand right now.

"I actually don't need this stone to consider myself inhumane. There's another reason behind that. This stone just . . . enhances my inhumane abilities, I guess. But, even so, I'm still very powerful without it." She mumbled while looking at the stone.

"If you don't need it, then give it to us. You say that you know everything about us, so you should know why we need it." Al pleaded as he took a small step forward.

"You also said that you're still powerful without it. So, what's the point of having it?" Ed also asked.

"You can never have too much power." She answered simply. "Everyone in the entire world always has the one thing that they have a burning desire for. Some people want money. Some people want world domination. Some people want that one person that they think their life will be incomplete without. Me? I just want power. Do you know how long I've waited to have all this power?" She held out the stone toward the brothers. "Hundreds, or perhaps thousands of years." She whispered almost silently.

Both brothers looked at her with mortifying looks on their faces.

She put the stone back in her pocket and said slowly, "So, you can understand fully when I say that there is no way in Hell am I ever giving you this. It's as simple as that. You can fight me, if you want to, but it's useless. You're never going to get this stone. No matter how hard you try. You'll just end up dying in the process." She said with a very sinister smile on her face.

Ed made a small chuckle and knelt down onto the ground. "You know what they say. Can't give up on something unless you try it first." He clapped his hands and placed them onto the ground. A bright blue light started to glow on the area of the ground that Ed had touched. A weapon of some sort had started to come out of the ground further as Ed slowly pulled his hands away from the ground. Once the transmutation was complete, the weapon was discovered to be of a dagger-like weapon. "Before we start this, why don't you tell me who you really are?"

Vanessa took out a hairtie and then began to tie her hair into a loose bun at an incredible speed. Once she finished, which was almost a half-second later, she answered, saying, "I have many names. I change them every century or so. But, if you really want to know my real name, you're going to have to survive." She said in a teasing tone. "The outcome of this fight may not be in your favor."

"Oh really? And what makes you think that?"

"Because, I'm stronger than you." She said simply. Then, without a moment's hesitation, she moved so quickly that it was almost unnoticeable. It looked as if she were moving against the wind, though there was no wind at all. In less than a half second, she appeared right in front of both Elric Brothers, much to each other's surprise. She then took Ed's dagger and put it between two of her two fingers and then pinched the weapon with her two fingers. It immediately broke into two pieces. She then took the two pieces which hadn't even fallen onto the dirt road, and put them between the palms of her hands. She proceeded to compress them by pushing her hands closer together with absolutely no difficulty whatsoever. The weapon was now a pile of sand on the ground once again. This entire process took an amount of less than five seconds. "Much, much stronger than you." She then made a slightly dark laughter. "This isn't going to take very long at all."

Ed looked at the mysterious girl with horrifying eyes. He felt like he should run, but he couldn't move. It was very much like when he had his 1st encounter with Scar. All he could do was talk. "What are you?"

Vanessa pondered that question for a couple of seconds. "You know, I really don't know. But you do. Perhaps if I say this phrase. _'Sic itur ad astra'_ . . . " She had spoken the phrase as if she were in Roman Times herself when Latin was still around.

Al and Ed had both made a sharp gasp when she spoke the Latin phrase. "You . . . you're the one . . . who . . . who killed . . . Azulene's . . . Azulene's parents!" Al shouted, trying hard to get all the words out.

"It's been along time since I heard that name. Must've been more than ten years since I saw the girl." She said with a big smile. "Azulene. I never got to tell her about her abilities. Can't believe she's still sane after all these years . . . "

"You killed her parents, and gave her the ability to read other people's minds without hesitation, and you're surprised she's still sane! You should be glad that she's still alive!" Al said, practically yelling at Vanessa.

"There's no need to be yelling at me like that." She said lowering her head. Then in a sudden instant, she threw a punch directly at Al. The sound the punch had created against the armour sounded like a boulder being dropped onto cement after being suspended 200 feet in the air. The sudden impact had sent Al flying almost 20 feet away.

"Al!" Ed yelled, immediately running towards his brother.

As Vanessa saw as Ed ran off towards his brother, she made a deep sigh. "Some people never learn, do they?" And just like that, she walked away. She had already finished her job, so there was really no need to stay there. She really didn't want to be there when Ed found out what she did to his brother. Though she would be watching from an unknown place . . .

"Try this on for size, Fullmetal Alchemist. The state you're about to go into is going to kill you from the inside out. Something you've never experienced before . . . " she murmured to herself as she took out her Philosopher's Stone and began to roll it between her fingertips. She mumbled something intelligible, and then turned into a blur, running into the dusty desert sunset . . .

* * *

OKay... really random ending... but you'll realize why in the next chapter.

Originally had a different way of ending the chapter, but I'm actually not the best at writing action. Much more of a detailed person.

I'll put the basic idea in the next Author's Note...

I'm still sad...

Adios.... Arrivederci.

Yeah.


	5. Shattering Under the Pressure

It's the somewhat climax of the story! It's not really anything to be happy about, but this was probably one of the hardest chapters I ever had to write. I really don't like to make meh favorite characters suffer but... it's crucial for the rest of the story.

So, here you go!

(Sorry if it's kinda short. Just had a hard trouble writing it!)

_**~ I wish you all sun, sea, and books.~ NISION**_

* * *

**_Chapter 5: Shattering Under The Pressure_**

Ed ran as fast as he could towards his younger brother. When he had finally arrived, he saw Al laying across the dusty road laying still.

"Al! Are you alright?!" he yelled, kneeling down onto the ground next to his brother.

There was no response from the armour.

Ed waited for a couple of more minutes, assuming that the sudden impact from the punch he'd received had knocked him out. In a sign of impatience, Ed grabbed the sides of the armour and started to shake it.

"Come on! Wake up!" he said between shakes. He started to shake the armour more violently.

After three minutes of violent shaking, Al's head had suddenly come off of his armoured body and tumbled about 2 feet away. Ed suddenly stopped his violent shaking and went to go pick up the head. When he went to go put Al's head back onto his body, he had noticed something weird. There was a hole on the front of Al's armour. Ed looked even closer into the armour, and what he saw was a horrifying sight. The hole in which he had seen was put through the exact place of where Al's blood seal keeping him in this world was. The same exact spot. Which had meant . . .

It had taken a couple of minutes for Ed to understand the situation at hand as he stared at the hole inside of the armour. When he had finally realized it, he said in almost a silent whisper, "No. No, no, don't tell me . . . " Tears had started flow out of his eyes and run down his cheeks as he struggled to get the rest the sentence he started out of his mouth. But instead, he let out a loud and piercing, bloodcurdling scream. More tears started flowed even more heavily as he started to breathe even more heavily. Each breath that he took in had felt like he hadn't had any oxygen in a long time. His heart had felt like it was going to implode inside his chest. All the while, a voice had started to echo throughout his head.

_Yeah. One of you guys are going to die today. But I'm not going to tell you which one . . . That would ruin all the suspension of knowing, don't you think . . . _

As soon as thosetwo sentences stopped echoing in his head,Ed had suddenly stood up. He looked out towards the sunset and started to speak, as if someone were there standing right in front of him. "You made it sound like you were going to kill me . . . I've never would have guessed or realized that you were going after him . . . " he said slowly, in a low voice. The tears had gradually stopped appearing the more he stared at the sunset, as if they were drying them. Then in a sudden instant Ed had felt a horrible pain suddenly appear inside of his head. The pain was unbearable, like a migraine that just wouldn't go away, no matter how long you laid in darkness. The pain was so great that in sent Ed down onto the dusty ground yet again. Ed grabbed his head instinctively, as if trying to rid some of the pain. It proved no avail since he started to slowly draw out loud screams from inside of him. This pain was nothing he'd ever had before. Each scream that kept coming out had become louder and more bloodcurdling than the last one. This pain was horrible.

It was even worse than losing his mother.

Or his limbs.

It was the pain of losing his brother.

His only reason to keep a completely sane mind.

And he was gone, which had left no other reason whatsoever to be able to keep him from losing the one thing that had bounded him with reality.

Slowly, sadly, but surely, Edward Elric's mind had started to shatter, like a million glass shards falling off of a broken mirror, hitting the ground with deafening sounds, with absolutely no purpose of being put back together again.

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Azulene stared outside the window in the front of her house watching all the people jumping from house to house with all their experiment dishes. Already 10 different people had come to her house with 10 equally as different dishes, which had all tasted amazing.

"By the end of the day, we're all not going to be able to eat for the next few days!" she had said to a person who had came to her door. She herself had to go out to other people houses to give them her food as well, but was just waiting until the desert had just set across her home, which would be in just five minutes.

All the time she waited, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about the Elric Brothers, whom she had helped just several hours ago on their journey to try and get their bodies returned to their natural state.

"I hope they got out okay," she said as she produced a deep sigh. She never got rid of that feeling she had last night that she had to help them out even more. It still hung over her head that she somehow didn't finish the task in hand. Her hands slowly started to drift back toward her stomach, which had grown a couple of centimeters overnight. She was about to go into her second half of her second trimester, and her doctor told her to expect some sudden growth while she slept. Her stomach, which had once been nice and smooth, now had a slight bump to it, though it was barely noticeable. She started to have a slight headache, but it wasn't anything she never experienced before.

'_Probably from the excess hormones in my body . . .'_ she thought.

When the time had come to go out and give out her dishes, she walked over toward the kitchen area, and grabbed a picnic basket. She very rarely used it, but it wasn't dusty in the least. When she filled all the of the basket with the food she made, she ran to her room to grab a big gray sweater to wear in case of the night having a chilling bite to it, and she was on her way.

As soon as she walked out the door, her mild headache which she had barely noticed, was now overbearing. She almost dropped her basket onto the ground when the sudden pain had hit her. She fell immediately to the ground on her knees and felt a little dazed. Once the pain had gone over, she slowly started to settle herself up from the ground.

"Wha-what was that?" she said holding her head in pain. The mild headache was back where it was, but the sudden rise in pain was the part that shocked her. She bended her back so that she could pick up the picnic basket from the first step up from her house. All the contents inside were safely unharmed.

When she started to walk forward again, she had suddenly saw someone's life flash through her eyes again. When it had finished, she blinked her eyes a couple of times confusingly. She had just seen Edward's life flash through her eyes. That was odd because, Ed was nowhere around her. He was off in the desert by now. But something else was odd. There was a piece she had not seen before. The piece she had seen, involved Ed laying on a dirt road screaming as loud as he possibly could, but there was a whiteness around the edges of the sudden memory. She had never seen that whiteness before while she saw other people's life, or Edward's when she had first seen it. She tilted her head slightly to the left and made a 'huh' sound, before beginning to walk more further into town. _'I sure hope nothing's wrong . . . '_

Once she was about six minutes from her home, she had started to hear a weird sound. It had sounded like someone screaming. She had started to walk faster towards the sound because she felt as if she heard this before. The closer she walked, the louder the screams became. They almost sounded bloodcurdling. Azulene felt tears fall down her face and felt the sudden urge to try and go another way into town, but she didn't. She kept following the horrible screams.

After about five more minutes of walking, she had started to see a figure. Two figures actually. They were both lying on the ground. The screams by now had become almost unbearable to hear, but Azulene kept walking faster toward, wanting to help the person so that they could stop screaming so horribly.

The closer she got, the more unbearable the screams became, the more the figures became more familiar to Azulene. The screams have turned crazed and Azulene wished that she could cover her ears, but she couldn't as she had to let go of her basket. She wasn't going to go against her town's holiday because of screams, although, she was sure that she wouldn't be able to hear much of the people's thank you's when she gives the food to them.

'_I'm surprised that this person hasn't run out of breath yet . . . '_

Azulene walked closer to the sound, tears dripping down her face. She stopped a couple of times to try and wipe some of them away, but they still kept coming. She always hated it when people yelled, but when it was like this . . . she was afraid that she couldn't, or more like wouldn't be able to bare it. The figures had gotten so familiar to her that she stopped in her footsteps when she saw the figures from 20 feet away. She couldn't believe it.

It was just what she saw when she had seen Ed's life flash through her eyes a second time.

She saw Ed on the ground, lying in the fetal position, screaming his lungs out. His entire face had looking crazed, like he recently escaped an insane asylum, and just had a complete breakdown. His face was completely drenched with sweat and tears had continued to dilute his eyes. Yet he was still screaming. Even from this distance that was all that Azulene could see. Even closer, it was probably worse. She set her basket down, once she was within 10 feet, and then, glad to put her hands over her sore ears to try and block out some of the power of the screams, she ran towards Ed as fast as she could. More tears had burned her eyes when she was within 3 feet of Ed. It was then when she had noticed the nonmoving armour about 2 feet away from Edward. She pressed her hands closer to her ears and walked over to the body. She saw a medium sized hole on the upper part of Al's chest plate. She then looked into Al's eyes. But nothing happened. She stared at the for a good two minutes, despite Ed still screaming uncontrollably. After nothing happened, she walked over to Ed's side and looked into his eyes. The screaming was nearly deafening, but somehow Azulene got through it, someway, despite how close she was to the main source of the screaming. She'd seen everything up to the point of them leaving her house, but then nothing. It was all white after that. She looked at him with a very confused look.

'_What the hell happened here?'_

She ran back to Al's body and looked at his eyes again. She couldn't see anything except blackness. She then looked at the hole in his armour more closer. She took a deep gasp as she started to realize what had happened.

'_Alphonse . . . he's dead . . . and Edward . . . '_

She looked at the two Elric brothers in understanding. Tears started to drip down her face once again, this time cascading all over her face as she finished her thoughts.

'_Edward . . . he's gone insane because Alphonse is no longer alive . . . '_

She took a deep breath as she looked up into the reddish-purplish sky.

'_These two brothers work like the Equivalent Exchange rule . . . But only that it is incomplete this time . . . To obtain, something of equal value must be lost . . . Because of Alphonse's death . . . Edward's sanity had to be taken away from him . . . '_

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Vanessa sat on the edge of a building just about 20 feet away from where she once was about 15 minutes ago. With her impeccable vision, she was able to see the handiwork of her actions appear right in front of her. She had a big smile on her face as she had continued to watch the action. Her highly-sensitive ears had allowed her to hear every scream that had pierced the air. She had used her ears to try all block out the sound, but some of it had still remained.

'_A bit over the top, but it gets the job done.'_

She had not intended to kill Alphonse Elric so easily, but drastic times calls for drastic measures. She had expected to get into a fight with the older Elric brother, to see and test his skills, but then she had a thought. A plan-altering thought.

'_The faster this part goes by, the faster the rest of the plan will go by . . . '_

All she had to do was watch the plan unravel right before her eyes. It would take some time for her favorite part to appear before her, but she had patience. Existing for over hundreds of years had given her that trait. She took out her shiny stone and began to roll it between her fingertips.

She took a deep sigh and began to say while staring directly at the stone, "Good times always come to an end, don't they?" She stared more intently at the stone, "There's always that one thing that just ruins everything." She said slowly as she took her eyes off the stone and rested them on the effects of her actions 20 feet away from her. Three figures, one laying on the ground, one screaming, and one looking up into the sky, were all people she had known.

"Don't know how you can handle all that screaming, Azulene." She allowed the name to roll off her tongue. "You probably got a small amount of my powers 10 years ago," she said, the smile started to fade away. "Any regular human would have gone crazy from the high frequency." Her smile had stopped fading away and immediately appeared across her lips again. "But I guess one already did . . . "

Her eyes had when to focus more the older brother, Edward, and her smile grew even more. "How do you like this experience, Fullmetal?" she spoke out loud, as if speaking to the person himself. "This is something I like to call . . . _insanity_," she had made the last word sound like acid coming through her lips. "It's something that causes you to lose your grip on reality and completely break down, just as you're doing now. Now, I know that it wasn't the best way to break you, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. With all the crap that happened in your life . . . I decided to choose the former for you." She giggled a little after saying that last sentence. "Everyone's a little insane . . . just depends on how much they decide to show. But don't think you're alone, Fullmetal. I, too, had entered this stage that you're going through right now. Painful, isn't it?" She shook her head and made a 'tsk-ing' sound. "But, I handled it much better than you did. I wasn't screaming all over the place like you are right now. It's sad though. I thought that you would at the very least try and hold back some of the insanity until later. I thought you were stronger then that. But, I guess I overestimated you. Behind all that stubbornness and resiliency, there's just a little boy who has nothing left to lose. Everything's been taken away from him, and there's nothing he can do about it, is there?" She started to stand up and stretch for a little bit before continuing to say, "You've gone insane. And by the bloodcurdling screams and the massive amount of tears and the unawareness of your surroundings, this is the kind of insanity that can't be reversed. Such a baby." She started to walk toward the interior of the building.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Although it looked as if Azulene was just looking up into the sky, she was actually pondering what to do next. She had somehow managed to block out all the screams coming two feet away from her, so that they wouldn't mess with her thinking.

'_What should I do? All this time, I thought that they were well on their way towards the desert... How this had happened? I can't even see who created this situation!'_

She thought for another moment. She'd never had a time in her entire life where she had white spots in her vision, nor did she had ever not be able to see a portion of someone's lifetime.

But that was the least of her worries.

She back down at Ed, who was still screaming his lungs out. There were tears streaming down his face. Azulene couldn't tell if there were tears of sadness or tears of pain. But either way, she had to get him to stop screaming. She thought for a couple of minutes and had an idea.

She had remembered that before when Ed was having a panic attack, she had placed calm thoughts in his head. That had made him pass out. This time, she had to do something that was way more powerful than just calm thoughts.

'_Some sort of mini-coma, I guess?'_ she thought hesitantly.

Azulene contemplated that single thought for a couples of minutes. She thought about how strong it should be, how long he would be passed out, and most importantly, how she was going to get back to her house afterwards.. But what she struggled with most was, how was she going to get both of the brothers back to her house. She couldn't just leave them out there. She looked down at both of them as silent tears fell down her face. But she had to get to work, and figure out the rest of her plan along the way...

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* * *

Major cliffhanger, right? Usually I'm not good with these kinds of things, but I think that this one's pretty good!

Why doesn't anyone review? I know that people are reading this, but I still have **_0 _**reviews.

Even if it's a constructive criticism one, I'll take it! (Just not so mean...)

I just need at least one! Please!

Visit my profile for once peoples!

Bye!


	6. Imminent Insanity

Finally! Got meh first review!

But sadly it was from an anonymous person, so I couldn't answer back... =(

But at least I got one! People are actually listening to me!

I'm really starting to think that nobody likes this story.

I know a lot of people are reading it but they're not reviewing.

So please review. I really want to continue this story! It's my favorite one so far!

But I'm just being selfish.

_**~ I wish you all sun, sea and books.~ NISIOISIN (Finally spelt it right!)**_

* * *

**_Chapter 6: Imminent Insanity and The Aftermath of It_**

Azulene let out a soft whimper. She really didn't want to do this, nor did she know what kind of effect this would have on Ed or to her. She had never tried anything remotely like this before.

'_This is crazy! I have ab_solutely no idea _what's going to happen! But still . . . something's telling me that this is the only way . . . '_

She looked up into the sky again. It had grown a shade darker.

"If anything happens . . . " she spoke to the sky, still staring into the blending sky, "if anything happens that will involve another person dying in someway . . . take me instead." She said, tears starting to fall down her face yet again. She slowly placed both of her hands on top of her forehead. She took a deep breath and let the thought in her head completely drain away from her. Every person's memories, every good, serene thought that she had seen through their eyes, were now draining into the palms of her hands.

Once she was finished, she felt . . . surprisingly better. She hadn't felt drained or exhausted, or any of the other feelings she had expected. Actually, she couldn't have been any better. Minus the mild headache that still laid in the background of her mind, she was better than ever. _'Maybe it's from the lack of thoughts clouding up in my head' _she thought optimistically.

She took a breath of relief, but then immediately went back to her original plan. She looked down at the screaming boy in front of her. She inhaled another deep breath, but more like a cleansing breath or something to calm her down. She held the breath as she lowered her hands on top of Ed's head. His forehead had felt slightly damp, but she expected that. From all the tears and screaming and such, how could one not expect such a feeling?

She let out the breath slowly, making a 'shh-ing' sound as she hesitantly let the thoughts slowly escape from her palms. It felt like her blood was draining away from her. When she was finished, Azulene had felt exhausted. Like lifting 25 pound weights in both hands, knowing that you have never exercised a day in your life.

'_Now this . . . this I what I had expected . . . '_

She felt a little dizzy and wobbled a little. All the feelings she had expected were now coming to her. She even felt a little nauseous, but that could have been caused from other resources . . .

Even so, a tiny smile appeared across her lips. She was feeling pain. She had read somewhere in a book that not feeling anything was a sign thatsomething was wrong. Having all these feelings throughout her body was, to her, a sign that everything was okay.

Now only one more thing to check.

She looked down at Ed, who now looked like he was sleeping on the dirt road along. His breathing was still rapid, but either way, he looked fine, as if nothing happened. Azulene looked at him thoughtfully. She then looked up into the sky, and then as if she was speaking someone in the sky, she said almost silently, and with tears running down her face, "Thank You."

"Azulene? What are you doing here?" a distant voice had asked.

Azulene had slowly turned around and had seen two male figures walking toward her. Once they were within 5 feet of her, she immediately recognized who the two figures were.

'_Dante . . . and Anthony? What are they doing here?'_

She stood up slowly as she tried to balance herself on two feet. She smiled at them as they walked closer to her.

"Hey guys," she said in a cheerful tone. "What are you doing here?"

"That was the same question we just asked you," Dante had asked, laughing a little. He was a man with a broad structure, with short dark brown hair and light brown eyes. The man next to him, Anthony, was of a leaner structure, not having many muscles, but still looked attractive. He had dark brown hair with almost as equally dark eyes of the same color. "We saw your basket back there, and we wondered if you got kidnapped or something."

"Well, as you can see, I'm still here." Azulene answered in a slightly sarcastic tone.

Anthony leaned his head slightly to the side to see the two figures behind Azulene, one, which was a boy, and the other, which was a suit of armour. He then looked at Azulene who was smiling at them.

"What happened here?" Dante asked Azulene while looking behind her as well.

Azulene's smile faded a little. _'This might be the first time I might have to lie . . . ' _she thought sadly. "Well," she started in a sad tone, "when I was walking to deliver my experiments, I saw this boy behind me crying and screaming. I tried helping him by getting him to calm down, and well . . . I guess he fell asleep."

Anthony looked at Azulene with concerned eyes while Dante kept looking at the two figures behind Azulene with an incredulous look. Something about the story that Azulene had told both of them just didn't sound right to him. It was like some piece of vital information was missing. But he let it slide and had begun to say, "Any idea what he was crying about?"

Azulene took a short breath and said, "He didn't even acknowledge that I was even there." She had started to feel tears pooling in her eyes, but held them back. She didn't like lying to friends of hers, but it was the only way. She couldn't tell them the real truth. They might think she was crazy or making it up.

"Anything we can do to help?" Anthony asked, taking a step closer.

Azulene was about to shake her head, but then thought of an idea. "Actually, I do need your help. See, I wanted to bring him back to my house. I can't just leave him out here all night with the wind chill like this." She said, wrapping her arms around herself to add affect. "He also has a couple of wounds that aren't treated."

"What about the armour?" Anthony asked, pointing to the armour.

"Since it was with him when I found him, I suppose it's important to him, so I guess so." Azulene answered with a slight hesitation in her words.

There was a moment of silence among the three people. Anthony and Dante were probably contemplating wether they should help Azulene. All Azulene was doing was trying to keep herself from crying and breaking down right there.

"Why the hell not? It's always nice to help people once in a while, right?" Dante said, breaking the ice while having a sincere smile on his face.

"I could always use the exercise," Anthony also added while scratching the back of his head.

Azulene walked up to and gave them each a small hug. Dante was surprised, while Anthony had a slight blush run throughout his cheeks. "I honestly don't know how to thank you," she said happily.

"Why don't you give us some of your 'experiment'? It smelled really good when we saw your basket." Dante considered.

"Actually, that's how we knew the basket was yours," Anthony said with a huge, almost goofy-looking smile on his face. "The way you cook, you know?"

Azulene made a light-hearted laugh, partly because of the compliment she had just received, but mostly from the smile hat she sees on Anthony's face. "My secret ingredient, huh?" she joked.

"Don't know what you put in your food, but whatever it is: perfection." Dante said, attempting a French-like accent.

Azulene made the same laugh again, then said, "Fine, I'll give you some. But only if you give me some of yours." She said, sounding like a negotiator.

"It's a deal then," Dante said holding his hand out for Azulene to shake. Anthony did the same.

Azulene shook each hand and then said, "It's a deal."

Once Azulene, Anthony and Dante arrived back at Azulene's house, the sun was almost gone behind the huge desert mounds surrounding the town.

"Who knew armour could be so heavy?" Anthony grumbled, having trouble balancing the armour on his back,

"I told you to take the kid. He's as light as a feather," Dante said, having absolutely no problem carrying Ed on his shoulders.

"In all fairness Anthony, Dante does have more muscle mass than you have." Azulene added while getting the key for her house while she had her basket in her other hand. She opened the door and walked inside.

"That's such a nice thing to say to a person that's helping you, you know." Anthony sarcastically between breaths.

"She's got a point there, Andy. I do have more muscle mass." Dante said, agreeing with a smug smile on his face.

"Why don't you ruin my day by saying I could never get a girl 'cause I'm like you, why don't you?" Anthony muttered angrily.

"Fine. You could never get a girl 'cause you're not like me, an incredibly sexy beast." Dante joked as he started to walk through the front door.

There was a loud sound of clanking metal out side of Azulene's door. Both of them turned around and looked out the door. It appeared that Anthony threw the armour on the ground in frustration and was just standing there with his arms crossed.

"Come on Anthony, You know I was just kidding." Dante said, apologizing in a way.

"I'm not going to stand here and take insults from you. I'm going home." Anthony said, starting to walk away from Azulene's house. "Sorry Azulene," he muttered.

"Anthony, you know that he was just joking around."Azulene contemplated. "You know him, always trying to be funny and cracking horrible jokes. He probably could break the seriousness of a circus."

"Is this supposed to make him feel better or make me feel worse?" Dante whispered to Azulene.

"You know I'm not the best at apologizing for other people. Maybe you should do it yourself." Azulene whispered back.

Dante took a deep sigh and walked back into the house. "First I have to put this guy down first. Where do you want him?"

"Back room's fine." Azulene said, pointing toward the back of her house.

Dante walked back and a door was heard opening. A few seconds later Dante came out of the room and closed the door. He walked out toward the main room and saw Azulene looking at him like he was the devil or something worse.

"How far did he get?" Dante asked taking a deep breath.

"I really don't know. But he's moving pretty quickly." Azulene answered angrily.

"It was just a joke. Who knew he would take it so seriously?"

"Was this the first time you've done this to him?" Azulene asked.

" I've done it a couple times before, but I was just messing with him."

Azulene knew he was lying. When she had seen Anthony's life when she had first met him two years ago, she had seen Dante making insults toward him since grade school. Though they were just playful jokings, she knew that Anthony had a very short temper. Azulene knew that when his temper was pushed over the limit, he became destructive. He probably walked away to cool down for a little while. With all that in mind, Azulene responded saying, with a bittersweet tone, " Sometimes the smallest jokings can turn into a lifetime worth of problems."

Dante scratched the back of his head nervously as he slowly registered what Azulene said."I think I'd better go after him, right?"

Azulene just stood there looking at him with the same look on her face.

"I guess I'd better hurry if I'm gonna catch up with him." Dante said, heading toward the front.

"That would be that obvious thing to do." Azulene answered a little rudely.

As Dante walked out the door, he stopped in his footsteps and went back inside. "Are we still gonna get some of your food?" he asked sweetly.

"Come back tomorrow with _Anthony_, " she exaggerated his name with an acid tone, " and with your guy's relations set back up, then you can get some."

Dante nodded his head and then ran out into the night.

Azulene took a deep sigh and let a few tears run down her face. She would _never, ever _lieagain_._ It was too painful. She felt a slight throbbing in the back of her head. So much has happened today and now she had to end it on this kind of note. She went to go outside and somehow drag Al's armour inside of her house. She tried to put it in a place that wasn't very conspicuous, so she settled for putting it in one of the corners in the main room. The one where you don't really notice it unless someone tells you to look in that direction.

After she had done that, she sat down in one of her living room couches for a couple of minutes. She felt so stressed and tired and the throbbing still remained in the back of her head. Her hands absentmindly wandered toward her stomach again.

'_I hope all of this doesn't affect the baby . . . ' _She thought sadly.

She stood up slowly and walked slowly toward the back of the house. She opened the back door slowly, but only halfway in. A beam of light had appeared across the room as she popped her head in. She saw the room as completely dark. She leaned her head in closer as she looked toward the bed in the corner. The outlines of the bed were too dark for her, so she opened the door a little wider and took a couple steps inside as the beam of light became bigger.

She sees a figure, outlined from the moonlight and the light from the outside room. His chest rises up and down a little faster than normal, but it's noting to be concerned about. There are somewhat loud breathing noises depicted as snores, which in return made Azulene laugh quietly to her self, despite the situation at hand. She moved a few steps closer as she said, or more like whispered, "I never heard you snore before. Now that I have, not really the best experience." She laughed even more as tears ran down her face. It was as if laughing were her coping mechanism.

When she got dangerously close to the bed, she looked down at the sleeping figure. His breathing had become more rapid, but only slightly, and his hair was completely messy, the front of it covering most of his face. To Azulene, he looked like some sort of troll doll.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time?" she murmured softly as more tears ran down her face. She quickly wiped them away and walked out of the room, closing it loudly, without any recognition or realization of what she had just done.

"So, you guys really made up, huh?" Azulene had asked in disbelief the next morning. She was currently making breakfast for the three of them.

"Yep, and we made a promise too. I can only make fun of him when the time calls for it." Dante answered while putting his arm around Anthony.

"Not really. All I have to do is control my anger more," Anthony said while trying to get Dante's arm off of him.

"Oh really?" Azulene asked, raising an eyebrow. She grabbed two of the three plates she's made and set them in front of the two at the table. "I would guess that it would have taken much more to apologize to him."

"Well, he was punching a building when I caught up to him. He got most of his anger out. I mean, what if that brick wall was me? Can't mess with these good looks." Dante said with a big smile.

"Yeah, I don't think dogs would really notice that much difference."Anthony said as he picked up his fork.

"You're so funny, you know that?" Dante said as he playfully punched Anthony's arm.

"Yeah, I do." Anthony answered as he started to eat his food. When he finished eating his mouthful, he continued saying, "Wow, this is really good!"

Dante looked at Anthony confusingly and then grabbed his fork and started to eat the food off his plate as well. "You know what? This is good!"

"I knew you guys would say that." Azulene said as she sat down at the table with them. She had started to eat her food as well, already knowing what it tastes like.

"If you hadn't pissed me off, we would have eaten this yesterday, you know?" Anthony stated while putting another mouthful of food in his mouth.

"I won't make fun of you after we're offered food again," Dante answered while chewing his food. After he finished, he continued, "Speaking of which, what happened to the kid? Is he alright?"

"Oh, and what about the armour? Did you drag it in by yourself? I didn't see it outside. I'm sorry that you had to pull all that weight in, even when you're pregnant." Anthony added, sounding guilty.

"Wait a minute? You're pregnant?" Dante asked, dropping his fork on top of his plate.

Azulene looked at him with an 'it's completely obvious, how could you not catch that' look. "Yes, Dante. I've been pregnant for almost five months now." She said in slight annoyance.

Dante's eyes widened even more when she mentioned the amount of time she's been pregnant. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

"Dante, look at her stomach. It's obvious that she's been pregnant for quite a while." Anthony said with a slight annoyance and obvious tone in his voice as well.

Dante looked at Azulene's stomach. There was definitely a pronounced bump to it, but he hadn't noticed it before. Now that he was seeing it for the first time, he mentally slapped himself hard for not noticing such a conspicuous thing. Dante looked back up at Azulene who was currently eating her food with a bitter look on her face.

"I honestly don't know how someone can miss something like that, Dante." Anthony chuckled as he continued eating. "I guess you're not as observant as you thought you were."

"Was that an insult?" Dante asked, rasing an eyebrow.

"You better believe it." Anthony answered between bites.

Dante shot him an angered look, but then Anthony said, "Now we're even."

Dante looked at Azulene with apologetic eyes."I'm really sorry, Azulene. I mean, I don't see you enough as it is, and yesterday, you were wearing a huge sweater that covered it up and . . . "

"Are you kidding me?! You saw her like five days ago before yesterday!"Anthony interrupted.

Dante shot him another angered look. "Well, she didn't have that big a bump the last time I saw her." He said with an acidic tone.

Azulene put down her fork and looked at Dante. "It's fine. Just didn't think that someone could actually disregard it." She answered while having a sincere smile on her face.

Dante had a relieved look on his face as he continued to slowly eat his food.

"Anyways, about the kid, he's fine. He just hasn't awakened yet. I wouldn't be surprised about that though. I mean, lying in the middle of the road. Maybe he fainted or something." Azulene said as nonchalantly as she could without crying.

"And the armour?" Anthony asked slightly apologetically.

Azulene flashed him a calming smile. "I got it inside without any strain. It's over there in the corner." Azulene said, pointing to the corner.

Anthony and Dante looked at the corner of the room where Azulene was pointing at. "Oh. I didn't notice it when we first came in." Dante said.

"That's the point," Azulene answered.

As soon as Dante and Anthony left and Azulene cleaned up from breakfast, she went straight toward the back room again. Then having a slight sense of worry in her movements, she knocked on the door softly.

"You awake?" she asked in a whisper

She waited for a couple of minutes outside the door, but heard nothing from the inside except for some slight rustles. She opened the door slightly to make aware that she coming in, then opened the door all the way.

What she had seen was, in a way, slightly expected.

She had seen Edward staring out the window right next to the bed he once laid in. His hair was no longer in a braided ponytail; it was now cascading down his shoulders, looking completely messy. He hugged his right leg against his chest. Azulene noted that he had a completely dead look in his eyes.

Azulene took a few steps forward inside just as she did last night, keeping her eyes on Edward. He just kept staring out the window, as if he didn't notice Azulene coming in the room.

There were a few moments of silence between them. Azulene broke it by saying, "Are you hungry? There's still some food on the stove." She had felt incredibly stupid asking that question, but it was the only thing that she could think of. She felt very awkward even being in the room, but she couldn't just sit there and do nothing.

She seemed slightly startled when Edward spoke in a monotone voice, saying, "No thank you."

She seemed relieved but also saddened. _'His voice . . . it sounded so . . . dead.' _She felt a couple tears fall down her face. But even so, she spoke again, saying, "You remember what happened yesterday?" More tears fell down her face.

Edward nodded his head slightly. He then spoke again in the same monotone voice saying, "And please don't cry. Only weak people cry. People who have nothing left to live for. You're a strong girl, so please don't cry. Yeah, a very strong girl." He finally turned his head, paying all his attention to Azulene. He had a slight smile across his lips and a few streams of tears running down his face. "Someone like me should be the only one to cry."

Azulene felt her heart pound loud and hard in her chest in shallow beats. She felt like she could barely breathe. Like she was suffocating over his words. But she wouldn't let it show. She had to be strong, like he said. So she just stood there with small amounts of tears still running down her face.

"You're right. I shouldn't cry. But you shouldn't be either. You're strong too. Stronger than me, even." She answered wiping the tears away from her face. She sounded like a little girl trying to convince her father to stop drinking. And she had felt incredibly stupid all the way.

He shifted slightly in the bed to get a more proper look at Azulene. Then, in the same face and tone, he said, "Not anymore, Azulene."

Azulene's heart pounded even harder after that. She could hear the blood pulsating through her veins from her ears. Her hands started to feel clammy. She felt faint and dizzy. She even felt herself sway a couple of times. The dull pain that had once laid in the background of her head was now coming out at full strength.

Before she could find herself fainting on the floor right there, she immediately ran out of the room and slammed the door behind her, just as she did the night before.

She leaned against the door, trying to get the pain in her head to go away. Almost instinctively, the tears that she had held back were now running down her face. She felt like banging her head against the wall until she blacked out. She started to breathe heavily as she clenched her chest.

After a couple of minutes, she slid down the wall, now sitting on the floor. She felt exhausted and tired, but even so, she would do anything to get rid of the pain. But somehow, through all the pain, she managed to speak.

In a nearly silent voice as more tears slid and streamed down her face, she spoke, saying, "I can't believe it . . . I didn't want it to be true but . . . he really _is insane_." She made the last word sound like poison on her tongue. She then felt a sudden wave of an unknown emotion go over her and finally lulled the unbearable pain she had before felt. Right before she went to swim in the darkness of her mind, she could have sworn that she heard muffled sobs from the other side of the room that didn't belong to her at all.

* * *

A super duper _**BITTERSWEET**_ ending, don't you think? (I'm not really sure if it's even partly sweet...)

Just so you know, Azulene had a very super **_MILD _**panic attack. That's why she ran out of the room so suddenly.

Oh, one more thing: Anyone ever one what Azulene's voice sounds like?

In my head, she sounds almost exactly like the girl who played Bridget in the movie **_The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants_** (don't know her name though.)

Azluene's voice is just slightly higher. (Never saw the movie? Rent it NOW! What are you waiting for?)

Completly random, but that's me.

Anyways, I'll see you later!

Sayonara and other worldly ways to say good bye in ever single language in the world!


	7. Nightmares

_I am not a happy camper today...._

_This chapter...._

_Is not very long..._

_It's not even 2000 words (more like 1800)..._

_i usually make my chapters 4000 words or more..._

_I just couldn't find anything else more to type about..._

_Do you know how hard it is to write about the perspective a broken down person?_

_Not. Fun. At. All._

_I feel so ashamed...._

_And I have the nerve to not update for a month...._

_And I produce this SHORT chapter...._

_I PROMISE that next time, i'll get the chapter up more quickly...._

_I'M UNBELIEVABLY SORRY!_

_I just need the reviews!_

_Flame me all you want! I don't really care now...._

_But only on this chapter, okay? (Not the future ones)_

_They give me the support and come up with awesome ideas for the story!_

_Just make with them!_

_I hate myself...._

**~ I wish you all sun, sea, and books. ~ NISIOISIN**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Nightmares, Questions, and Conversing**

Two months later . . .

Azulene wakes from a slight nightmare with a quick and loud gasp in her bedroom. She tries to look around in the darkness for her lamp. When she finally finds it, she turns it on, she looked around her room to see if anybody was there. It was the same dream for the past week. The person who killed her parents and her twin sister . . .

She was coming for her next.

Azulene felt tears run down her face. This was the first time she did this action in the last 8 weeks. Every time she has that dream, the person gets closer and closer to her every time.

And she couldn't run.

It was like her legs were stuck to the floor and she couldn't move them an inch.

When she could finally move them, the person was too close to her for her to even start running.

It happened like this for the past 6 days.

Today was the 7th one.

And she would wake up every single time just when the person was about to kill her.

Azulene's hands wandered towards her stomach. It has a very visible bump to it now. Her stomach had almost looked swollen. She was now around 7 months pregnant. She still doesn't know the sex of the baby. "I want it to be a surprise!" she told the doctor. And she really did.

A kick from her stomach had knocked her from her thoughts. She wiped away the tears and sniffled a little while looking down at her stomach. She cradled it gently. Another kick was produced.

"Of all the things that happened," she whispered, almost in a cooing tone, "I'm glad you're still okay." She smiled to herself as she slowly started to move her hands around her stomach gently and delicately, as if it were a piece of very expensive porcelain. "Sorry if my nightmare scared you. It scared me too."

Another kick was produced, this time more softly than the previous ones. To Azulene, it was like her baby was comforting her. She made a small laugh while saying, "You remind me of your father. Always trying to make me laugh, even when the moments are tense. But you also remind me of someone else. A friend of mine. You've heard his voice and his name before. Even though he's not really like himself now, he's really a good guy. He makes me laugh a lot, that's for sure. But he doesn't talk as much as he used to. He's very silent now." She tried to hold back the tears pooling in her eyes with slight stinging from them. She licked her lips and continued, saying, "I worry about him a lot, though. He only comes out of his room for breakfast and dinner, and most times, he doesn't even eat. All he does is just stare out the windows. It's like he's searching for something. But I don't know anymore. I can't see that part of him anymore. It's all white now." She said the last couple of sentences as an afterthought, mostly to herself.

Azulene really did worry about him all the time. She wondered what would happened if she left him alone for even just a couple of minutes. Her heart pounded slightly faster after that thought. But she didn't notice. She continued saying, "In a way to put it in more simpler terms, you could say that he has an illness of some sort. But I'm not going to say that. That would just be admitting that I'm more naive than I should be." She looked up at the ceiling above her and stared at it like it was the most precious object were right above her. "And I can't admit that, can I? That would just mean that I'm giving up. Never." The tears still burned in her eyes, but she dealt with it. She would not let them spill over. It was really hard for her to not let them.

'_It's not nearly as bad_ _as the pain he's going through...'_

* * *

"You sure you're not hungry?" Azulene asked, sounding slightly concerned. She was currently in the kitchen, taking down two plates from the cabinet. She looked over at the kitchen table where Edward was sitting (staring out the window) and searched for any slight change in his expression, which was, as expected, blank.

"No. I'm okay."

Azulene flinched a little as he spoke those simple three words. She seemed shocked at how low, depressed, and dead panned his voice was. It even sounded slightly hoarse. She thought that she had grown accustomed to the recently changed tone of his voice, which had once sounded confident and fearless.

She stammered in her thoughts for a couple of seconds before saying, "You didn't eat last night. You must be starving."

He shifted slightly in his chair, keeping his eyes glued onto the window. His expression seemed more stiff and tense, somehow. "I know. It's okay. I'm fine."

Azulene let the silence ring through her ears. She noted in her head that the tone of his voice changed slightly. It had sounded like it had a small hint of reanimation in this, but this was shrouded over the voice, sounding slightly annoyed. She took a deep breath. She had decided that was enough conversation for the morning. She didn't want to push him too much. It might send him over the edge. _'If he doesn't want to talk, don't let him talk.' _She would have another chance at dinner.

She knew where the line drew.

She silently prepared only one plate of food for herself and then walked slowly over to the kitchen table. Once there, she took a seat directly across from him as she always did.

She tried to look at the side of his face, but, as always, it was concealed by his hair, as long and messier than ever. Azulene made a deep sigh as she started to eat the breakfast she made.

When Azulene was halfway finished eating her breakfast, Edward had said suddenly and quickly, "I heard you talking last night."

Azulene froze for a couple of seconds, then looked up from her plate. She tried to look at Edward, but he keeps his eyes on the window, staying in the same position he was in for the past 15 minutes. Azulene leaned back in her chair and took a deep sigh as her heart pounded in her chest in long, shallow thumps. "So," she started out slowly, unknowingly adding tension into the near silent room, "how much did you hear?"

"Everything," he had answered simply while taking a breath.

"Like?" Azulene said, urging him to continue as she raised an eyebrow. Even though she was a little nervous at how much he had heard, she wanted to keep this conversation from going back to one word answers and silent moments in between those short answers.

Edward took another deep breath. He held it in for a couple of seconds before saying, "You talked about your nightmare, your boyfriend . . ."

"And?" Azulene asked, repeating the same action she did before. She leaned away from her chair and towards the table. She crossed her arms and placed them on the table in front of her plate. She wanted Edward to keep talking. This was the most she had ever heard him talk in a single day.

Edward looked away from the window and directly into Azulene eyes, his own golden ones perplexed and surprised. His facial expressions seemed shocked and impressed. He then began to say slowly, sounding slightly like a question, "You talked . . . about me . . . "

Azulene was pretty sure she had a tiny smile on her face. She hd felt tears pool in her eyes, but with a controlled action, she kept them back. She would never cry in front of him, she promised that to herself. But she felt so proud, that she wanted to get out of her seat and give him a hug. She fought that urge too. All she did was nod her head as nonchalantly as she possibly could.

Azulene was so deep in her own thoughts that she hadn't realized that Edward wasn't finished speaking yet. While she was in her state of happiness, Edward continued to speak slowly, very hesitant in his words, saying, " . . . and you said something about how you 'couldn't see that part of me' anymore, and that 'it was all white'."

Azulene's smile started to fade as soon as she heard the ending to that sentence. She hadn't remembered saying that. Not at all. She tried to think back, but everything was blurry. She definitely couldn't remember every word she had said, and her eyes widened, realizing that she might had let it slip off her tongue by accident. But she didn't think that anyone was listening by her door at that time of night. Her heartbeats had now grown even more shallow.

"What does that mean? You can't see my thoughts anymore? Is that what you meant?" he asked, his voice sounding even more reanimated, but also more angrier.

Azulene tried to speak, but she couldn't. She didn't want to tell him why she couldn't read his mind, because she didn't really know the answer herself. It was definitely something that crossed her mind every single day, and gave at least an hour's devotion into thinking about possible ways on how she lost this ability. But for some strange reason, she only had this problem with Edward, and not anyone else. She read other people's mind as easily as she could, even though she didn't really want to. Ever since she's rid herself of all the calm thoughts she's seen in order to save Edward by stopping his high frequency screams, her head felt much lighter, but she hasn't had a decent dream in two whole months.

'_Maybe that's what brought up the nightmares.' _she thought sadly, almost letting her tears spill. She rubbed her temples in frustration.

She cleared her throat, even though there was nothing to clear from it, and said, "Yes, that's what I meant. I don't know why I see white when I try to read your mind. It's like your mind has a shield or something, I don't know. And it's only with you. Everyone else's mind I can read perfectly fine . . . not that I want to." she said as she lowered her eyes down onto her half-eaten breakfast.

"So . . . you can't see anything . . . at all?" his voice seemed slightly taken aback, almost relieved in a way. He leaned back in his chair with a surprised expression on his face. "Nothing at all? It's all white?"

Azulene seemed slightly confused at his sudden mood swings, but answered, saying, "Yes. That's all I see."

* * *

Again, SO SORRY!

Just please, please review! ( I sound SO desperate right now...)

I promise i'll start on the next one right away!

*while hitting her head against a brick wall* Come up with the chapter soon....

Bye....


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